United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2001-07-26 monographic deposited born digital 9 p. GA 1.13:GAO-01-979R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-979R P0b002ee1803883dc f:d01979r DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-979R machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-979R GAO-01-979R Army personnel Combat readiness Personnel management Human resources utilization Army Manning Initiative Correspondence A01471 Congress, the Department of Defense, and GAO have expressed concerns about the readiness of U.S. forces to perform combat missions. To ensure Army units' readiness to fulfill their missions, the Army Chief of Staff created an initiative in October 1999 to staff all active units at 100 percent with personnel at authorized grades and skills over fiscal years 2000-2003. The initiative has had a positive impact on the Army's combat divisions but has created some negative effects, at least in the short term, on many nondivisional units. On the positive side, some combat divisions that in the past were routinely staffed at less than authorized levels are now staffed in the aggregate at 100 percent. On the negative side, because of the effort to staff the combat divisions and armored regiments at 100 percent, the staffing levels of some nondivisional units, including early deploying combat support units, have decreased. According to Army officials, some management decisions have affected and may continue to affect the Army's ability to achieve the goals for the manning initiative. Whether the Army will fully achieve and sustain its manning initiative goals will depend on its future management decisions on funding, recruiting, and retention. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-979R/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-979R.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-979R/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-979R.pdf GAO-01-979R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-979R Correspondence GAO-01-979R; Military Readiness: Preliminary Observations on the Army's Manning Initiative; Army personnel Combat readiness Personnel management Human resources utilization Army Manning Initiative