Army Force Structure: Plans to Restructure and Reduce Medical Corps

GAO discussed the Army's process for restructuring and reducing the number of reserve medical support units. GAO noted that: (1) the Army plans to reduce its medical force structure from 786 units to 555 units by 1995, and expects that the number of active units will increase slightly; (2) the number of units in the reserve components will be reduced by 105, equating to a reduction of about 30,000 authorized positions, beginning in October 1992; (3) the Army's future medical force will be less reliant on reserve units, particularly in its contingency force; (4) Army guidelines for structuring and selecting reserve component units for deactivation were to configure medical units to support the Army's AirLand Battle doctrine, retain critical skills, and increase the units' readiness; (5) the Army plans to retain critical medical specialists by dispersing components of its hospital units throughout the United States and by adding specialists from units scheduled to be eliminated to its Individual Mobilization Augmentee Program; and (6) the Army has no plans for achieving unit cohesion and training for the reserve units under its planned decentralized hospital system. GAO believes that including an assessment of the Army's plans for the drawdown and restructuring of its medical forces would provide an opportunity to coordinate plans among the military services.