Operational Contract Support, Day 1

Yesterday the Army flew me out to Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washintgton [state], to attend a two week course about Operational Contract Support. Given that it's at Army expense and it grants the "3C" Additional Skill Identifier (ASI), it's a great privilege to be here. It's also first time since I took command in 2014 that the Army's paid for my professional development, so that's cool too.

A lot of people have been asking me what the class is about. Does it teach you how to be a Contracting Officer or Contracting Officer Representative? Well, no. Operational Contract Support is different.

You see, the Army has a two-part problem. While the draft Army days of World War II meant labor was cheap, the All Volunteer Army we currently have means labor is far more expensive. Nowadays, it's much more cost effective to bring in host nationals or third country nationals to run dining facilities and perform "janitorial services" while deployed. This means contracted labor.

The second part of the problem is that while contractors are an integral part of what's called "The Total Force," Army commanders aren't trained to manage them well. They tend to treat day laborers like soldiers -- ordering them to stay late or do things that are outside their contract.

Contractors relieve the Army of certain tasks, which is nice, but they bring added complexity to its force management. When you consider Iraq and Afghanistan had all sorts of joint (Navy, Air Force) and multinational force components, just understanding who was allowed do what was a mess, let alone trying to lead them. They need a staff officer's help.

The Contracting Officer can't do that. They write up contracts, submit them for bid, and commit government funds. And a Contracting Officer Representative only comes into the picture once a contract is awarded. They don't help create it -- they simply monitor its execution and sometime offer clarification (but not material change) on requirements. So who generates the requirements in the first place, and who helps manage the contractors themselves? That's where the Operational Contract Support-trained guy steps in.

Operational Contract Support-trained staff officers (and NCOs) help guide their unit's staff through the contract creation process, consolidating the requirements for the Contracting Officer. They also serve as a commander's point person in managing the contractors themselves.

For example, the Indians brought in to work in the Kandahar dining facilities needed billeting, food, and force protection, too. Who takes care of them?

Consider also that the great Iraq War tragedies involving contractors may not have been due to the contractors themselves, but with the performance work statements -- what the Army directed them to do.

For instance, there's Blackwater. From the beginning of the Iraq War, the Army faced limits on how many military personnel it could deploy. Because of these force caps, it relied on a contractor called Blackwater to protect U.S. diplomats.

However, what was supposed to be temporary soon became permanent, and in 2007, Blackwater's "Wild West" methods to force protection resulted in more than 20 Iraqi civilian casualties in Baghdad's Mansour area. [Source] The incident drew attention to the pitfalls of contingency contracting, and resulted in a special commission to look at wartime contracting's hidden costs. [Link]

As the Mansour incident showed, the unforeseen consequences of poorly written contracts can have second- and third- order effects. This is what the Operational Contract Support course tries to remedy.