RAFINO

RAFINO Report
ISSUE 21 - Fall 1998 
- Return to Index

NCO Deputies, Area Support Doctrine, 
Personnel Management.
and Down-sizing (Finance Service) in Europe


I believe that the idea to authorize outstanding FC NCOs to be Deputy Disbursing Officers is the best one for the Corps that I, or anyone else, has had in recent years.  In this article I will address management of personnel, downsizing the finance structure in Europe, the development of the area support doctrine and the background behind the decision to establish the NCO Deputy.

Early in my Army career I learned that NCOs are the real providers of service to the troops.  As a young 2d Lt.  In the finance office at Ft. Richardson, Alaska, I was given the title of Chief of Military Pay.  Fortunately, MSG Dayton was there to show me the ropes and help me over the hurdles.  I learned to trust in, and rely on, NCOs to get the job done.  I remember a couple of instances where NCOs showed outstanding leadership:  One of them had to do with a situation where the local MPs at Ft. Richardson were picking on our finance troops.  There was no reasoning with them until one payday the MP Detachment showed up on the payroll of the stockade.  The stockade was way out in the "boonies" and they had to go out there to get paid.  The transfer of that unit payroll was as clean as could be, i.e., by the book -- or we might never have found them to transfer them back to the post.  The second was in 1952 when we were under the old pay voucher system.  Adding machine tape was in short supply; so we put adding machines across the table from each other and printed on both sides of the tape.  One day the Quartermaster decided to cut our order for tape below what it took to calculate pay.  We simply told the QM that we were short paper and that the payroll for his unit would be the last one to be calculated.  I don't remember hurting for adding machine tape ever again.

Now advance forward 20 years.  In 1976 I became the F&AO for US ARMY EUROPE.  To me it was time to pay back all the debts to all those who had nurtured me along the way.  That was a critical time in history and I was in a position where I could directly cause changes to be made.  It was evident that Army strength in Europe was to be reduced.  There seldom is an environment where changes are not only welcomed but where there is some insistence that change occur. 

Soon after reporting in to USAREUR, SGM Day and I hit the road to see what this new area of responsibility looked like - and to meet with as many Officers and NCOs as possible.  It gave SGM Day and me a chance to get to know each other.  He even taught me the road signs in Germany so I could drive safely by myself.  Then we, the F&AO staff began to establish goals and projects to meet those goals.  We continued to add to the list of projects as we found areas that needed attention.  I will address only a few of the projects here. 

Downsizing:  We called the project that was to do a better job with fewer finance troops "Give the CINC the spaces for one rifle company from our finance organization."  It was obvious to me that we had offices in communities that could be served in a more efficient way with better results.  In coordination with the Finance Offices and communities we began to mark offices for close out.  I was blessed with the best officers and NCOs in the Corps.  Whenever we opened discussion on a project, they would start getting ahead of the project officer in meeting deadlines and coming in with better ideas than those already in the project.  We brain stormed ways to support nearby communities and units.  One office even established a mobile finance office to improve their service.  Sometime early in my tour I was advised that one of our West Point graduate lieutenants was resigning his commission.  On investigation I found that he was not the first to resign and that the common thread was they were assigned to small isolated units as class B Agent Officers.  My analysis concluded that the officer need only be there to sign his name since all the other functions were properly accomplished by the NCOs.

When I combined the obvious under-utilization of young officers with the need for service by small teams as a result of the downsizing we reached the conclusion that we needed to give those outstanding NCO leaders the authority that translated to Deputy Disbursing Officer.  We made a request for approval of NCO Deputies to USAFAC and Colonel Ralph Dixon carried the project through the stateside maze and got the approval we needed.  As I stated at the beginning, the NCO Deputy position is the prize idea of a 30 year career.  Of course, there was some discussion by those who protect the status quo concerning the sharing of this trust that has always been reserved for officers and civilians. My belief that NCOs would hold this responsibility, this authority, this challenge, in a treasured and protected position has been borne out by experience.  My position finally prevailed. 

Personnel Management:  When we started projecting the close out of offices it immediately became obvious that MILPERCEN was filling old requisitions for jobs that no longer existed nor would exist in the then near future.  This condition gave me the justification to get control over the assignment of Finance Officer and NCO personnel.  Getting this authority was big because normally Personnel types will never deviate from their rule that they assign people.  My position was to agree that they make all assignments but that I would tell them which FC Officer or NCO to assign to which position.  Every time a new expert came into MILPERCEN, it was routine for me to reestablish our agreement.  Since assignments were made to the Corps level, I worked closely with the Corps Comptrollers to get people where we needed them.

I had a firm policy that married finance couples would be assigned to the same community.  I remember only one case where a Corps Comptroller let a couple get split between two communities.  I took the position that they had to be assigned together by that Corps or I would reassign them to another corps where they could be together.  (I am aware that at least one of the couple is still on active duty as a colonel.)

Army Support Doctrine:  Another thing that bothered me as we traveled around the command was that there was no useful doctrine of support.  We had Division and non-Division Finance units in the command.  Every Division was located in three communities and the Division Finance Office only paid one of the communities or about 1/3 of the Division.  That Division unit also paid all the non-Division troops in that community.

We staff developed the Area Support concept and it looked very much like the way finance support was being provided.  This fact alone made the concept an easy sale to the commanders.  I personally briefed each Division and Corps Commander and got his signature approving the concept before it was sent to the doctrine folks.  This document became the basis for Finance Doctrine in Division 86 structure.  I might add that there would be fewer problems in future large scale operations if the area support doctrine were followed.  (Look for more of Claud's reflections which should be in the next issue.)