IRT Background

The purpose of the Civil-Military Programs is to improve military readiness while simultaneously providing quality services to communities throughout America. These programs are in keeping with a long military tradition, leveraging training to benefit both units and their home communities. They are strongly supported by The Department of Defense(DoD), Congress, the states and communities.

The military services have always brought to bear their extensive resources to help meet some of the country’s civil needs. In recent years, DOD has realized the simultaneous benefits these civil-military programs can offer to military readiness. This document reviews the resurgence of these dual-benefit programs.

In the 1992 Presidential Campaign - then candidate Bill Clinton challenged Americans with his "Rebuild America" initiative. As President, he challenged the DoD to search for innovative programs, which would serve American communities in need and provide realistic military training benefits. He suggested three primary areas of emphasis which take advantage of the unique resources and capabilities of DoD -- health care, infrastructure support, and youth training programs.

Also in 1992, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) echoed the President by directing DoD’s increased involvement to help meet domestic needs. The SASC Report on the FY93 Defense Authorization Act noted the opportunities for enhancing military readiness while assisting in meeting domestic needs: "The American people have made an enormous investment in developing the skills, capabilities, and resources of the Armed Forces. These resources, if properly matched to local needs and coordinated with civilian efforts, can be a useful contribution to addressing the serious domestic needs of the United States."

In June 1993, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs established the directorate for Civil-Military Programs. The energy behind this initiative came from President Clinton’s call to "Rebuild America" and the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 1993.

History of IRT Implementation

The directorate of Civil-Military Programs was created in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. This directorate coordinates with the various contacts from the Armed Services and provides guidelines for the civil-military programs being conducted by both the Active and Reserve Components.

The director of Civil-Military Programs asked the Armed Services to develop programs that incorporate readiness training and community service. The ASD/RA asked the Reserve Component Chiefs to serve as a General Officer Steering Committee for Civil-Military Programs. The Chiefs were also asked to designate members at the Colonel/Captain level to serve on a Senior Working Group.

The Senior Working Group, chaired by the director for Civil-Military Programs, met regularly from late October through December 1993. The Group’s work included:

1. Looking at the armed forces’ past experience with civil-military projects, both CONUS and OCONUS;
2. Examining existing resources and capabilities upon which we might capitalize;
3. Identifying parameters for new programs based upon this information; and
4. 4. Developing new ideas for potential programs through which our armed forces could address domestic needs while simultaneously enhancing readiness. The focus was on quality, not quantity.

The working group elected to concentrate initially on three areas based on the strength of the armed forces and the nation’s domestic needs: education and job training; health and medical services; and civil engineering projects.

As part of this process, the following important considerations and objectives were met:

IRT Guidelines

SUBJECT:

General

A. PROGRAM TITLE:

B. FUNCTIONAL AREAS:

C. AUTHORITY:

D. TERM AND CONDITIONS:

All IRT project submissions shall: (Note: the following 9 factors cover both guidelines (1-4) and requirements (5-9))

1. Consist of activities essential to the accomplishment of military readiness training and offer incidental benefits to the community in which the training activities occur.
2. Provide support and services that:
   (a) in the case of assistance by a unit, will accomplish valid unit training requirements; and,
   (b) in the case of assistance by an individual member, will involve tasks divectly related to the specific military occupational specialty of the member and fall within the member’s scope of duties.
3. Be conducted in a Federally-funded training status under Title 10 or Title 32, U.S.C. NOTE: The Federal Tort Claims Act applies to personnel operating within the scope of his or her duty for approved IRT projects for members in Title 10 or Title 32 status.
4. Not endorse, or favor any non-governmental entity (whether profit or non-profit), commercial venture, religion, sect, religious or sectarian group, or quasi-religious or ideological movement.
5. Identify a military officer responsible for conducting each project who will be responsible for:
   (a) Obtaining all required documents for package submission, and
   (b) Coordinating with other Service/Component POCs participating in the project (to include gathering final project costs for After Action Reports).
6. Include certification of non-competition with other available public and private sector service organizations. This must be accomplished by the requesting official posting a public notice ad in a local newspaper for the minimum state required time for public notices. If any such commercial entity is identified by that publication, then certification is required to be provided by the requesting official that the commercial entity agrees to the provision of services by the Armed Forces.
7. Include review and endorsement by the military:
   1. Staff Judge Advocate/Legal Officer
   2. Federal Budget Officer responsible for obligating and disbursing federal funding to verify that:
      1. supplies and equipment items are on the GSA schedule or local purchase and that the prices are fair and reasonable
      2. estimated cost for each project is delineated by Operation and Maintenance (O&M) and Pay and Allowances (P&A) for each service or Component participating
      3. fiscal accountability be in accordance with comptroller divectives
   3. Plans, Operations and/or Training officials
   4. Medical, Nursing, or Dental officials (if applicable) for regulation compliance
   5. Adjutant General of the project state(s)
   6. Inter-governmental agencies (if applicable)
8. Include (if applicable):
   1. Appropriate Environmental Protection Documentation
   2. Coordination with the Army Corps of Engineers
   3. Land Use Agreements
9. Identify emergency evacuation of civilians (if applicable) by other than military vehicles, except in the event of a life threatening emergency or other exigent circumstance as authorized by Military Service Regulation.

All Medical IRT project submissions shall:

The CHO Lead is to provide an on-site supervisor for each exercise.

1. The CHO shall certify that these projects:
   1. Accommodate an identified underserved healthcare need that is not being met by current public or private sector assistance. (The CHO shall provide a description of the criteria they use to identify the medically underserved community and the specific services they require.)
   2. Are provided in a manner that does not compete with private sector medical/dental/healthcare assistance in the underserved area
2. The CHO verifies and documents the responsible agent (whether military or civilian) ensuring compliance for each operational site for the following:
   1. Medical handling and disposal
   2. Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (CLIA)
   3. Credentialing and Privileging of Military Health Care Provide to include Basic Life Support and, if applicable, Advance Trauma/Cardiac requirement - The strictest requirement applies
   4. Emergency evacuation of a "real life incident"
   5. Following-up care of patients for continuity of care
   6. Handling of patients’ records for continuity of care and privacy act issues
3. Be conducted when all participating military personnel:
   1. In divect contact with the patient population, use universal body substance isolation precautions as developed by the Center for Disease Control and Occupational Safety and Health.
   2. Have completed required immunizations (to include the Hepatitis B series) IAW their service regulations.
   3. Have a current negative Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) test IAW their service regulations.

E. PROGRAM MANAGEMENT:

F. FUNDING AND COST ACCOUNTING:

1. OASD/RA may allocate supplemental funds to Service and Component Fiscal Points of Contact (POCs)
2. Project Lead Agents are responsible for identifying all funds and Fiscal POCs to receive the funding.
   (NOTE: Services and Components cannot transfer the OASD/RA programmed Pay and Allowances (P&A) and Operations and Maintenance (O&M) funding from one Service/Component to another, therefore OASD/RA must be able to program to the correct source at the start of the fiscal year)
3. Project Lead Agents are responsible for reporting total project cost to OASD/RA, using After Action Reports (AARs) as described, below.
4. Services and Components are responsible for identifying a procedure that determines whether conducting the IRT project causes a &q
   significant increase in the cost of training" (DoDD1100.20, para D4b(3)).

G. AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR OASD/RA

1. Forward to OASD/RA no later then 60 days after project completion.
2. Participating units shall forward their AAR information to project Lead Agents no later then 30 days after project completion.
3. Use the format for mandatory information: in the download files listed in paragraph H.
4. Each service that received funding for a project must complete an after action report. A copy of each services’ after action reports will be forwarded to OASD/RA, regardless if the service was lead or a participating service.

H. POINT OF CONTACT

IRT Questions and Answers

1. What's the goal of civil-military innovative readiness training programs?

   - Provide the Services/components "hands-on" readiness training opportunities, while at the same time, they provide a divect and lasting benefit to our communities.

   - NOT an add-on training requirement to a military unit's current training schedule; Separate training option for a commander to consider using in the normal training planning process.

2. Why does DoD support these programs? Why are they such good programs?

   - "Double bang" for our military training resources is smart use of our tax dollars.

   - Provides real world realistic training.

   - Builds individual and unit morale.

   - Contributes to recruiting and retention by "spotlighting" our military and its capabilities, especially the Reserve Components, in the communities from which all the Services recruit.

   - Right thing to do.

3. What's DoD's position on these programs? Are we planning to expand them? Where will the majority of them be? Stateside or overseas? Why?

   - Civil-military Innovative Readiness Training programs are conducted within the U.S., its territories and possessions by our military, especially our Guard and Reserve forces. Our military forces deployed overseas participate in a similar program known as Humanitarian and Civic Assistance Program. Civil-military innovative readiness training programs help address serious community needs in our own country.

   - Primary units/individuals involved are combat support and combat service support units, i.e., medical, dental, engineering. They represent a small segment of our armed forces.

   - It is the commander's discretion whether unit or personnel participate in civil-military Innovative Readiness Training programs.

4. Do they involve only reservists? Or active duty too? If so, to what extent?

   - Primarily, Guard and Reserve units are involved, however, participation in civil-military innovative readiness training programs is available to our active forces also provided it supports their readiness training objectives.

5. What types of community work would service members be asked to do? What would they NOT do?

   - Engineering, medical, and dental because it is a good match. Commanders would not become involved in any civil-military program that does not promote the operational readiness skills of the participating service members or the combat readiness of the military unit.

6. What do you say to people who say programs like these weaken the military and degrade readiness?

   - I would strongly disagree and ask them to take another look at these programs. The individual and unit readiness training activity conducted during a civil-military innovative readiness training project is essentially the same as conducted on a military base or training area with two main differences:

   a. "Hands-on" training involving real people producing real results is accomplished; and

   b. Training activity is conducted in a community of our country experiencing a serious need that can be helped as a result of that training.

   - The "bottom line" is that when military skills are exercised, they are enhanced; when combat mission capabilities are used, military readiness is strengthened. The fact that the training occurs in our communities simply does not weaken or degrade military readiness.

7. What do Civil-Military Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) Programs do for the Military Services and the individual service member?

   - Commanders of units approve innovative readiness training initiatives that are compatible with their Mission Essential Task List (METL), which supports their wartime mission, and/or the military occupational specialties of their personnel. Combat units and personnel are not generally used to accomplish these IRT initiatives. Civil-military initiatives provide a commander a unique type of "hands-on" morale enhancing training.

   - IRT enhances the military's image within our hometown communities and offer "real world" training in a "hands on" environment.

   - Civil-military programs have a very positive impact on recruiting and retention by providing our military personnel, especially the Guard and Reserve components, an opportunity to training in support of their communities in which they live and help make a difference.

8. Are there Civil-Military Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) projects that in fact adversely affect readiness?

   - No, the majority of military assets that support Civil-Military Innovative Readiness Training initiatives are combat support and combat service support. The combat roles and missions of participating units are compatible with the type of support being provided to the civilian community. IRT initiatives are incidental to the Military Services’ normal training. The goal is to provide realistic "hands on" training opportunities to enhance existing training programs, while augmenting domestic needs, most often in the area of healthcare and engineering support.

9. How are Civil-Military programs funded?

   - The DoD Civil-Military Program acknowledges civil-military projects are viable training options for unit commanders. To date, civil-military projects are not yet integrated into the Services’ routine training scheduling process. Therefore, limited Operations and Maintenance (O&M) and military Pay and Allowances (P&A) funding is available to support incremental costs associated with civil-military projects. Funding submissions are routed through the Service Component Chiefs and submitted to the Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense for consideration. Every effort is made to ensure that projects funded by OASD/RA are spread out evenly throughout the service components.

IRT Step by Step Instructions for Applicants