November 13, 2007: About three
percent of the U.S. Navy is working for the U.S. Army. This small army of
10,000 sailor "augmentees" are assigned to army units in Central Command (Iraq
and Afghanistan, but mostly Iraq and the Persian Gulf), otherwise known as
"the sandbox.". In the last six years, over 50,000 U.S. Navy sailors
have served as "IAs," (individual augmentees), to assist the U.S.
Army. At any time, 8-9,000 sailors are doing IA work, on six, or, more usually,
twelve month assignments. Most of the IAs are volunteers, and possess skills
similar to those performed by soldiers. The IAs get 17 days of training at an
army base, to familiarize them with army procedures, weapons, and the specific
dangers they will encounter. Most of the sailors never get out into combat, but
concentrate on support tasks in well protected bases. This ranges from maintenance
to handling logistics. Many navy EOD (Explosives Ordnance Disposal) technicians
serve in the danger zones, taking care of roadside bombs, and other dangerous
devices. But mostly, the sailors free up army personnel for things like base
security. The IAs also help army morale, as they make it possible to not send
key technical people overseas so much. The sailors volunteer because they want
to get involved. As the old saying goes, "it's the only war we've got," and
this one does not involve a lot of naval action.
The navy has been constantly
tweaking the IA program, to make it less disruptive to a sailors career. This
includes awarding a lot of Combat Action Ribbons. This is an award established
in the 1960s, but not seen much, at least for ground combat, since the Vietnam
war ended. Now, with so many sailors seeing ground combat (usually as EOD
technicians clearing roadside bombs, or working convoy escort duty), the
blue-yellow-red-white ribbon has now appeared on the uniforms of thousands of
sailors.
The navy personnel procedures
have also been adjusted several times to accommodate IAs. The latest wrinkle is
to select sailors for IA duty at the end of a tour of duty (on a ashore or on a
ship), so that they have more time to arrange their next regular assignment. By
the time the fighting dies down in the sandbox, 15-20 percent of sailors will
have had the experience of serving with the army. No telling what long term
effects that will have.
