THE ARMY LEADERS’
DESK REFERENCE FOR
SOLDIER/FAMILY
READINESS

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The Army Leaders’ Desk Reference for
Soldier/Family Readiness

Family Deployment Readiness for the Active Army,
the Army National Guard, and the Army Reserve


This desk reference is a new publication of the Operation READY (Resources for Educating
about Deployment and You) materials developed under a contract with Headquarters, Department
of the Army, Community and Family Support Center, and the Texas Cooperative Extension of the
Texas A&M University System.



Grant Administrator and Project Director
for Texas Cooperative Extension
Nancy Granovsky

Project Manager
Granville E. (Gene) Tyson

Editor and Design
Susan Lee

Production Coordinator
Diane Wisneski

Cover Illustrator
Emma Stark



Operation READY:
Resources for Educating About Deployment and You


Texas Cooperative Extension
The Texas A&M University System
in cooperation with
The United States Army
Community and Family Support Center


2002

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THE ARMY LEADERS’ DESK REFERENCE
FOR SOLDIER/FAMILY READINESS


Introduction

The Army Leaders’ Desk Reference for Soldier/Family Readiness is designed for
commanders and leaders to understand and address family readiness. In a clear and
forthright manner, it presents the key elements in a unit’s family readiness
responsibilities.

An excerpt from AR 600-20 (Draft) on the Family and Soldier Readiness System is
provided, along with figures depicting the FRG organization (Figure 1, page 15) and the
family support structure (Figure 2, page 16).

An “Open Letter to Commanders” is worth reading. The author deals with the
commander's leadership of soldiers and families. His ideas deserve serious consideration.


Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge LTC (Ret.) James C. Peters for his ideas that initially brought
this guide into reality. His understanding of the Family and Soldier Readiness System is
deep and far-reaching. We appreciate his contributions that gave it foundation.


Operation READY Materials

The Operation READY curriculum is a series of training modules, videotapes, and
resource books published for the Army as a resource for Army Community Service
(ACS), State Family Program Coordinators (SFPC), and Army Reserve Family Readiness
Program (FRP) staff in training Army soldiers and families who are faced with
deployments.
This revised curriculum includes the following training modules and reference materials:
# The Army Family Readiness Handbook
# The Army Leaders’ Desk Reference for Soldier/Family Readiness (new)
# The Soldier/Family Deployment Survival Handbook (new)
# The Army FRG Leader’s Handbook
# Family Assistance Center
# Predeployment and Ongoing Readiness
# Homecoming and Reunion
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Videos developed for the Operation READY curriculum by University of California–
Riverside Cooperative Extension, to supplement the above materials are:
# Army Community Service: To Get the Most Out of Life, Think ACS (new)
# Introduction to Operation READY (new)
# Family Assistance Center
# Family Readiness Groups—A Place to Belong
# Practical Readiness—Smart Ways to Minimize Deployment Hassles
# Coping with Stress
# Making Your Reunion Work
Children’s Workbooks for use by parents with their children.
These materials have been distributed to all U.S. Army installations throughout the
world, as well as to U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard commands. The materials are
distributed in hard copy form as well as stored on CD-ROM disks. They are also
available through the virtual Army Community Service website, www.goacs.org. For
copies of the above materials, check with your local Army Community Service,
Mobilization and Deployment office, SFPC and FRP offices.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS


AN OPEN LETTER TO COMMANDERS
An Open Letter to Commanders ......................................................................................1
ABOUT THE DESK REFERENCE
About the Army Leaders’ Desk Reference for Soldier/Family Readiness.......................3
Purpose........................................................................................................................3
Scope...........................................................................................................................3
Primary
References .....................................................................................................3
Assumptions................................................................................................................4
Concepts and Definitions ............................................................................................4
Soldier/Family Readiness Initiatives for Commanders ...................................................5


SOLDIER/FAMILY READINESS SYSTEM
Family and Soldier Readiness System.............................................................................7
Concept .......................................................................................................................7
Soldier/Family Readiness Roles, Structures, and Responsibilities..................................8
Roles............................................................................................................................8
Structures.....................................................................................................................9
Responsibilities ...........................................................................................................11
SAMPLE READINESS PLANS
Sample Family Readiness Plan—Battalion Level ...........................................................19
Purpose........................................................................................................................19
References...................................................................................................................19
Key
Tasks....................................................................................................................19
Sample Family Readiness Plan—Unit Level...................................................................21
Purpose........................................................................................................................21
References...................................................................................................................21
Key
Tasks....................................................................................................................21
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PREDEPLOYMENT BRIEFINGS
Predeployment Briefings .................................................................................................23
Predeployment
Training..............................................................................................25
SUCCESSFUL FRGs
Successful FRGs in the Army Today ..............................................................................27
Family Readiness Group Organization and Operations..............................................27
Family
Problems .........................................................................................................27
Family Readiness Group Leadership ..........................................................................29
Family Readiness Group Tasks Before, During, and After Deployment ...................29
Training Family Readiness Group Leaders ................................................................31
Other
Considerations...................................................................................................31


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AN OPEN LETTER TO COMMANDERS
by LTC Larry Ingraham
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

Ladies and gentlemen: Rank and position are conferred from above, but leadership is
confirmed from below. Your selection as an Army leader is evidence the Army has
confidence in you, but this is the easy vote. In combat, a silent vote of confidence is taken
on every order. The same holds for training, but the returns take longer to count. Now
you win the second, more difficult and really important vote of confidence. You say you
do not wish to be liked, only respected, but too often you confuse respect with fear. You
often appear uncertain of your authority and fearful you will not be respected. Therefore,
you set out to prove who is in charge.

In combat especially, but in training as well, you are totally dependent upon your
subordinates. You can succeed only to the degree you are willing to join them first, and
then lead them by their consent—because they trust you and believe in you. You talk
about “my outfit,” be it a battalion, company, battery, platoon, or squad, but it is not just
yours. It is their unit, too. They were there before you and will remain after you. You are
only on loan to the unit. You have been appointed and given the charge of helping them
make it the most effective Army unit possible.

Communications are always problematic in organizations. You listen for what you want
to hear and can never know enough. Again, your success depends on your subordinates.
If you are any good at all, your subordinates will not shield you from the unpleasant.

When they do, it is because they are fearful. They have tested your courage to hear the
truth and found you wanting. Also, they want to please; they want to handle problems
themselves and not bother you with “trivial” details. Too often, however, what they see
as trivial will be crucially important to your understanding. Unless you have worked
extremely hard to gain their trust, unless they share your vision of what is really
important, you will not have the information you need in a form you can use.

You have repeatedly heard that families are important. They are, but we are often unclear
as to why. Yes, common decency requires we attend to families; happy families make
happy soldiers, and all that. Yes, we recruit soldiers, but retain families; therefore,
families are important. All these reasons are true. The real reason families are important,
however, is that healthy families keep soldiers alive on the battlefield. My scientific
colleagues have established that stress is cumulative. Soldiers who go into battle stressed
with personal and family problems are at greater risk for panic, poor judgment, despair,
and apathy in combat. Soldiers with family problems who break in battle also have lower
odds for recovery.

We have known for a long time that troubled families produce troubled soldiers who
create troubles in their units. However, the evidence is now clear that troubled units
produce troubled soldiers who then create troubles in their families.

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The causal chain is really a circle. We can pretty accurately assess the morale in our units
in two ways: We can ask soldiers, or we can ask their families. They mirror each other.

I suggest, therefore, that you attend carefully to families in assessing your combat
readiness. If you dare, judge your units by the degree of informal family participation.
Families, especially wives, participate in group activities because they want to, not
because they are ordered or “tasked” to attend.

I close with a golden rule of command. Consider how you would feel if you were bound
by the same rules you impose on your soldiers. When you see barracks organized like
basic training with tape on the floor for each piece of furniture, how would you feel if
somebody were to organize your living room? How would you feel if your next
commander changed the tapes? Then the next commander comes along and changes them
back? We do this to soldiers in the barracks all the time, for no better reason than to
prove to them (and ourselves) who is in charge.

In the name of pride, you sweat our troops to get increasing percentages of maximum
scores on the PT test, or make them buff floors until they shine like shaving mirrors.
Whose pride? You intend to improve morale, but the troops hate it. They do it in the
hopes you will someday catch on and join the unit. You confuse what you do with the
result you intend. Your soldiers really do want you to succeed because they want the unit
to succeed. Their lives depend on the unit. So does yours. As their appointed leader you
have great power to create misery and little power to reduce it, for you will be blind to its
existence—unless you vigorously seek it out. What you intend is too often quite opposite
of what you get. Your soldiers can only see what you do. They cannot know how you
feel, or even your intentions to do good on their behalf. Your only hope is to concentrate
on trust, communication, feedback, mentoring, and families. Use your power wisely; the
troops are watching and silently voting every day.


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ABOUT THE ARMY LEADERS’ DESK REFERENCE
FOR SOLDIER/FAMILY READINESS


Purpose

This desk reference provides commanders and leaders at all levels with a concise
guidebook for preparing soldiers, their families, and volunteers for training missions and
real-world deployments.

Scope

The Army Leaders’ Desk Reference for Soldier/Family Readiness includes concise
direction and guidance on soldier and family readiness actions, and responsibilities for
commanders and leaders at all levels—from Department of the Army to unit level. Where
rear detachments are authorized, special emphasis is placed on the roles of rear
detachment officers in soldier and family readiness.

Primary References

1. AR 600-20 (Draft), Army Command Policy, Management of Family Readiness
Groups, 2002.
2. AR 608-1, Army Community Service Centers, 2001.
3. DA PAM 608-47, Guide to Establishing Family [Readiness] Groups (to be
incorporated into AR 600-20 [Draft] in 2002).
4. FM 22-100, Military Leadership (Oct. 83 and later revisions).
5. FM 22-103, Leadership for Senior Leaders.
6. Operation READY, curriculum of family readiness training materials developed by
Texas Cooperative Extension, The Texas A&M University System, under contract
#DASWO1-01-P-0296 to U.S. Army Community and Family Service Center,
Washington, D.C., 1994, 2002. This curriculum includes the following training
modules and reference materials:
# The Army Family Readiness Handbook
# The Army Leaders’ Desk Reference for Soldier/Family Readiness (new)
# The Soldier/Family Deployment Survival Handbook (new)
# Army FRG Leader's Handbook
# Family Assistance Center
# Predeployment and Ongoing Readiness
# Homecoming and Reunion
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Assumptions

# Operational tempo in training and deployment environments will remain high for
active and reserve component units for the next decade and beyond.
# Soldier/family readiness is a key factor in unit, soldier, and Army family morale,
recruitment, and retention of soldiers and families and, ultimately, in successful
achievement of military missions.
# Up-to-date Operation READY training materials are in place at all installations, and
SFPC and FRP offices for and in active use by FRG leaders and key FRG committee
chairpersons, FRG steering committee chairpersons, senior spouse family readiness
advisors, commanders, rear detachment officers (RDOs), and non-commissioned
officers (NCOs).
# The above premises apply to all active and reserve component units subject to
deployment.

Concepts and Definitions

# Soldier/family readiness—see References 1 and 6, above.
# Family Readiness Group (FRG)—see References 1 and 4, above.
# Roles and structure of the FRG—see Reference 4, above.
# Soldier/Family Readiness Plan (SFRP)—prepared at every level from DA to unit. See
sample SFRPs on pages 29–33.
# The Family Readiness Center (FRC) is not a Family Assistance Center (FAC).
! Many Army units have established FRCs to assist the unit’s families in
communicating with deployed soldiers. FRCs often provide video-teleconferencing
and e-mail resources for communication between families and deployed soldiers.
! A deployed unit’s FRC may provide information for accessing other family
assistance personnel and services, such as emergency financial assistance and
chaplains. FRCs are limited in terms of the essential services provided.
! FRCs frequently provide a place for Family Readiness Groups (FRGs) to meet.
! FRCs may have to borrow operations staff from the unit’s organization.
! FACs provide essential services, such as assistance with ID cards, a connection to
medical facilities, and emergency financial assistance for families of deployed
soldiers through DCA/ACS at a central location on the installation.


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Document Outline

• BACK TO MAIN MENU
• Cover Page
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
  • An Open Letter to Commanders
  • About the Desk Reference
  • Family and Soldier Readiness System
  • Sample Family Readiness Plans
  • Predeployment Briefings
  • Successful FRGs
• Commercial Print Copy

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