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Army Maintenance: Use of German Civilians and U.S. Reservists in Europe for General Support Maintenance

NSIAD-90-22 Published: Dec 28, 1989. Publicly Released: Dec 28, 1989.
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Highlights

GAO reviewed the Army's utilization of German civilians and Army reservists in Europe for general support and maintenance operations.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Army The Secretary of the Army should direct the Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Army, Europe and 7th Army, to work with the German government to identify personnel who have had previous experience maintaining U.S. equipment (such as former German employees of U.S. Army maintenance facilities who are currently in the reserves) and could be employed to complete the authorized strength of the 471st Maintenance Battalion in the event of mobilization.
Closed – Not Implemented
This recommendation is being dropped in view of changes to the defense mobilization plans being made in response to the reduced threat of the Warsaw Pact in Europe.
Department of the Army The Secretary of the Army should direct the Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Army, Europe and 7th Army, to follow through on actions underway to: (1) monitor the draft status of emergency-essential German employees; and (2) better ensure their availability to perform maintenance repairs during mobilization.
Closed – Not Implemented
This recommendation is being dropped in view of changes to the defense mobilization plans being made in response to the reduced threat of the Warsaw Pact in Europe.
Department of the Army The Secretary of the Army should develop an evaluation plan to assess the effectiveness of the initial phase of rotating reserve components overseas to perform general support maintenance. The evaluation should consider, at a minimum, the total costs incurred in implementing the initial phase, the types of equipment repaired by the reserve maintenance units, and the relevance of that work to the most critical general support maintenance wartime missions.
Closed – Implemented
The Army had evaluated the initial phase of the subject program using the data GAO suggested. GAO is continuing to monitor the program in an ongoing review of Army reserve general support maintenance (code 393386).

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Topics

Armed forces abroadArmy reservistsCivilian employeesCombat readinessDefense contingency planningEmployment of foreign nationalsEquipment maintenanceStaff utilizationMilitary trainingTraining utilization