Paper Trail

Inside the Army this week runs a story on the service's transition efforts that's based on a briefing you should check out even if you're not all that interested in the Army.

Army Transition Briefing for Senior Leaders
In a Nov. 25, 2008, briefing prepared for senior service leaders, Army officials lay out the service's positions on the roles and missions review and the presidential transition. Note: The briefing is labeled "FOUO - DRAFT - PREDECISIONAL."

Why? Well, for one thing, it goes into some broad transition issues -- and it contains a handy chart laying out the transition POCs in each major service and department. (Page 8 in the .pdf version.)

Also: The briefing gives a status report on the roles and missions report and on the 5100.1 directive rewrite, two issues that cross service lines.

On that note, this story, from yesterday:

Pentagon Revises Definition of Military Services' Core Roles, Responsibilities

Dec. 15, 2008 -- The Defense Department today hammered out the final wrinkles in a new agreement outlining the core functions of each military service and U.S. Special Operations Command, setting the stage for Defense Secretary Robert Gates to send Congress the 2008 Quadrennial Roles and Missions Review report before Christmas, according to Pentagon officials.

Service and SOCOM representatives met and resolved their differences over language in what one service official calls a “big update” to the Defense Department directive that sets forth the functions of the military components, adding a section for the Coast Guard and another for SOCOM, these officials say.

The revision of Defense Department directive 5000.1, prepared by the services and the Joint Staff, was undertaken as part of a congressionally mandated assessment of the roles and missions of the services that also includes an assessment of five specific capability areas Congress asked the Pentagon to examine.

The updated directive does not outline any significant realignment of responsibilities among the services, each of which was invited to write the portion of the directive describing its contribution to the enterprise, according to Pentagon officials.