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Top U.S. Army Reserve leaders visited Germany-based Soldiers of the 7th Civil Support Command March 6 to 7.
Brig. Gen. Jimmie Jaye Wells, the commanding general of the 7th CSC, welcomed Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz, the chief of the Army Reserve, and Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Schultz, who recently took over the top Army Reserve enlisted position.
The senior leaders were shown the 773rd Civil Support Team’s equipment capabilities, including its analytical laboratory system.
The 773rd CST is the only active Army Reserve civil support team stationed outside of the continental U.S. and its territories. The unit is capable of deploying in support of U.S. Army Europe’s response to a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incident. It can identify agents or substances and assess current and projected consequences before, during or after an incident.
The command team had lunch with officers and enlisted, respectively, to discuss their career obstacles and ideas to help improve the ranks of the Army Reserve.
As snow fell, approximately 150 participants from the command formed its first human formation in the shape of the numeral seven, representing the 7th CSC. Senior leaders were positioned in the front two rows.
Soldiers had the opportunity to voice their concerns during a town hall held at the Kaiserslautern Community Activity Center on Daenner Kaserne, where Lieutenant General Stultz explained how the Army Reserve has evolved from a strategic Reserve to an operational force.
“We are 75 percent there, but change is constant,” he said.
The Reserve is a force of 208,000, but it’s not the right mix; there are too many chaplains’ assistants and not enough civil affairs or military police, and there are too many senior enlisted and not enough staff sergeants. The force needs to be reshaped, Lieutenant General Stultz said.
Lieutenant General Stultz briefed the Soldiers and their spouses about the Employer Partnership Program. He praised the benefit of partnering the private and public sectors with Reserve forces, saying it’s a win-win for all involved.
“They are looking for the same people we are,” he said.
He told the audience that companies are looking for drug-free and physically and morally fit employees. Lieutenant General Stultz said more than 800 businesses, such as General Electric Co., American Trucking Association and Wal-Mart, have joined the partnership with the Army Reserve.
Lieutenant General Stultz’s wife Laura traveled with him to Europe to meet with Army Reserve family members. While here she heard from families about the unique issues facing them overseas and offered guidance and suggestions gleaned from her many years as an Army Reserve spouse.
Michiel DeVito, Installation Management Command-Europe Army Community Service, Devon Paul, Kaiserslautern Army Community Service, Rosemary Dow, American Red Cross, and Linda Lookabill, Military and Family Life consultant, briefed Mrs. Stultz and the Army Reserve family members on employment readiness and various programs offered to community members during mobilization and deployment, as well as the day-to-day programs offered to support the strength, resilience and readiness of the Army Reserve family in Germany.
The next day, Lieutenant General Stultz and Command Sergeant Major Schultz stopped by Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and were greeted by a team of Army Reserve liaisons.
“The liaisons track all the Army Reserve Soldiers from the theater of operations to the states,” said Sgt. 1st Class Ronald Jefferson, LRMC liaison noncommissioned officer in charge. “We track Soldiers like Lt. Col. Randee Turner, a nurse anesthetist, who was medically evacuated from Iraq. She is going to be transferred to the Brook Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston. We stop tracking
her when she leaves here.”
Lieutenant General Stultz asked to meet and talk with servicemembers and civilians in the hospital to find out about their hometowns, where they were deployed and how their recovery was going. His tour included the Chaplains’ Closet, Fisher House, United Service Organizations Warrior Center and the Medical Transient Detachment. He also ate lunch with selected personnel.
The Medical Transient Detachment reassigns and houses outpatients until they either return to duty downrange or are flown back to their U.S. home
station. The USO Warrior Center provides troops with Internet, movies, a game room and phones to keep in touch family and friends.
The chief of Army Reserve also met with Maj. Gen. Patricia McQuistion, the commanding general of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, and Command Sgt. Maj. James Spencer, the 21st TSC command sergeant major.
