- Build readiness. The job is to train, man, equip, coach, mentor, and prepare a team of PA professionals to perform tasks when deployed to do so. You need to build a unit that meets admin requirements so they’re ready for deployment, and you also need to validate their readiness. Make it real: what tasks will your team do when activated? How will you test and measure their abilities?
- Garrison activities ought to lead to readiness. Is your team providing real-world PA support in garrison? Great, they’re being useful and getting reps. Capitalize on your folks’ chances to ship real products for the Army by connecting the same themes they’ll use in ops: America’s protection.
- Prepare to augment a bigger unit. I think this is doctrine: SRC-45 units are generally employed to augment the PA staffs of brigades, divisions, corps and other task forces. When this time comes, fully invest your team in the organization you’re augmenting. If you can, wear that organization’s patch, melt into their battle staff, and shed your “commander” ego for an appropriate title like Deputy or PA Ops Chief. Instead of acting like your own fire team-sized unit, start bringing your team to the headquarters staff’s ceremonies and PT.
- Build cohesion. Like I said, you’ll deploy to augment a bigger organization. You’ll have a small team, so get them cross-trained, and get them comfortable with one another. I was lucky to spend 3.5 years with a National Guard PAD team that caused very little drama. When we had three weeks’ notice of an opportunity to go overseas for an emerging mission, the whole team volunteered because it meant going as a team. When there’s cohesion, it’s easier to focus on mission.
- Get smart in different, worldwide Army and DOD messages. At home, your folks may ship products with the local commander’s key messages. My team certainly supported our TAG at home. But when you’re employed in ops, you’ll need to quickly adapt toward the new environment. Your home station talking points need not apply, so help your team prepare to rapidly shift to their new area of operations. What are the Army’s key messages? What is the geographic combatant commander pushing? The posture and language may be very different.
- It’s not all command information. Preparing to augment a unit, you don’t know what they’ll need, so don’t assume they’ll just want photos, videos and stories. I learned this on an annual training rotation through the Joint Multinational Readiness Center. My folks were well-versed in finding and releasing stories, but were sent out on role-playing assignments – as “local” reporters and embedded “western” journalists within the exercise. Fortunately, they were adaptable, and figured out on the fly how to add training value and prepare soldiers to engage the media. Bonus: they came out of it much more prepared to escort media in the future, since they’d experienced first-hand the gamut of common mistakes.
(Photo from my own stash.)
