Army Force Structure

The Army plans to cut about 30,000 positions from its medical forces by the end of 1995. Army officials have concluded that the medical force should be less dependent on reserve forces, particularly in its contingency force, which must be deployed quickly. As a result, most reductions will center on units in the medical reserve components. The Army is trying to retain critical medical specialists by dispersing the components of its hospital units throughout the United States and by adding specialists from units scheduled to be eliminated to its Individual Mobilization Augmentation Program. However, with the deactivation of its medical units, the Army has no assurance that it will be able to retain personnel with critical medical skills, and it has no plan describing how it will keep them. In addition, it is unclear how the Army expects to achieve unit cohesion and training for the reserve units under its planned decentralized hospital system. Further, while the Army Reserve and National Guard have coordinated their plans to avoid competing for the same resources, GAO believes that including an assessment by the Defense Department would provide an opportunity to coordinate plans among the military services.