STATEMENT OF RICHARD A. DAVIS, SENIOR ASSOCIATE DIREC- ACCOMPANIED Mr. DAVIS. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Before I begin, I would like to introduce the people with me. On my left is David Warren and on my right is Ray Carroll. They are responsible for the ongoing audits that we will be discussing. We are pleased to be here, today, to discuss the skill qualifications of National Guard and Reserve members. As you know, my testimony is based on preliminary results from two of our ongoing reviews. One review addresses general management issues facing the reserves and the other responds to your request that we examine individual skill qualifications in the Army and the Army's proposal to improve them. In general, reservists are considered to be qualified if they have the skills required for their duty positions. According to the military services data, however, about one of every four reservists is not fully trained for his or her duty position. There are many reasons for reservists' skill deficiencies. The reserves are a part-time force that is required to train at least 38 days a year. Even though many reservists exceed this minimum number of days, training time is limited. As a result, there are a number of factors that affect the Reserves' ability to maintain high levels of individually qualified personnel. For example, training courses are often longer than the minimum 38-day training requirement and reservists cannot always take the time away from their civilian employment to attend training. The Reserves also rely in part on recruiting persons with prior military experience. These persons are already trained. However, in some cases, their former skill is not needed in the units they join. Consequently, they must be retrained. Finally, reservists may not be qualified for their duty positions because of new training requirements that evolved from changes in a unit's equipment or mission. The services are aware of the problems with reservists' skills and are developing programs to address these problems. Included are initiatives such as the development of training packages that consider the limited time available to train reservists and the establishment of regional and centralized training facilities that will be equipped with war-training equipment and simulators that are found in local reserve centers. I would now like to turn to the results of the work we have in process on the skill qualifications of soldiers in the Army Reserve and National Guard. As you requested, we have undertaken a detailed analysis of Army qualification data and an evaluation of the Army's proposal to improve soldiers' qualifications to perform their jobs. Our work shows that reservists may be less skilled than the Army data indicates. The Army does not know how many reservists are proficient in their jobs and proposals to address skill qualification problems may not address all the areas needed. We found that although soldiers are termed "qualified," they are not necessarily fully qualified in their jobs. Rather, these soldiers may have been trained in only a portion of the tasks that the Army considers critical to proper job performance. The Army generally awards a military occupational specialty, or MOS, to a soldier upon successful completion of advanced individual training. However, for many occupations, such as positions requiring repair capability for the Bradley fighting vehicle and the Abrams tank, advanced individual training teaches soldiers less than 60 percent of the critical tasks they need to learn to be proficient in their jobs. Consequently, a considerable responsibility rests with Army reserve and Guard units to provide individual training in many critical tasks as well as refresher training. The Army does not collect information on whether soldiers have been trained in all critical job tasks. We also found that although the Army has a means, the Skill Qualification Test, or SQT, to evaluate the overall proficiency of its Reserve soldiers, a relatively small number of reservists take the test. In fiscal year 1987, only about 32 percent of the Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers required to take an SQT for their MOSS did take the test. Consequently, the Army lacks proficiency data on nearly 70 percent of its reservists. For the 156,000 reservists who did take an SQT during fiscal year 1987, about 65 percent passed the test. In comparison, about 92 percent of the 450,000 Active duty soldiers who took the test during the same period passed. The Army has developed a broad range of initiatives to improve reservists' training. While these initiatives, if adopted, should help to improve reserve soldiers' qualifications, the Army's measurement of skill qualifications and its proposals to improve reservists' training appear to be focused on providing training in the basics of an occupational specialty, not on training for all critical tasks. While the Army has established the goal of training 85 percent of its reservists to be MOS qualified, it has not yet established a goal for MOS proficiency. Another issue that the Army must address to assure fully qualified reserve soldiers is the effectiveness of its training management. Our prior work and work conducted by the Army Audit Agency has shown problems in this area. In this regard, we noted that the Department of Defense Annual Statement of Assurance for fiscal year 1987 identified training management in the Army National Guard as a material weakness. Over the next few months, we plan to continue our evaluation of skill qualifications in the Army Reserve and National Guard. This work will focus on identifying underlying causes of skill qualification problems and on evaluating the Army's proposals to address the problems. Madam Chairman, this concludes my comments. I would be pleased to answer any questions you or other members may have. [The prepared statement of Mr. Davis follows.] Madam Chairman and Members of the Committee: We are pleased to be here today to discuss the skill qualifications of National Guard and Reserve members, 1 with specific emphasis on the Army's reservists. The ability of reservists to perform effectively, when mobilized, is increasingly important since they have been assigned greater responsibilities within the defense force. I would like to comment on three areas relating to individual military skill qualifications: (1) the number of unqualified reservists, (2) reasons for reservists' skill deficiencies, and (3) service initiatives to improve reservists' qualifications. My testimony is based on preliminary results from two of our ongoing reviews. One review addresses general management issues facing the Reserves, and the other responds to your request that we examine individual skill qualifications in the Army and the Army's proposals to improve them. GENERAL CONDITION OF INDIVIDUAL SKILL QUALIFICATIONS In general, reservists are considered to be "qualified" if they have the skills required for their duty positions. Military 1These National Guard and Reserve soldiers are members of Selected Reserve units that generally train one weekend a month and participate in annual active duty training. service data indicates that about one of every four reservists is not fully trained for his or her duty position. The Reserve Forces Policy Board's most recent annual report stated that, next to the lack of personnel, the lack of individual skills was the most significant factor limiting reserve unit readiness in fiscal year 1987. Our preliminary analysis indicates that the Army's early-deploying reserve units have persons assigned to duty positions for which they are not trained. REASONS FOR SKILL DEFICIENCIES Training reservists is difficult. The Reserves are a part Even time force that is required to train at least 38 days a year. though many reservists exceed this minimum number of days, training time is limited. For example, the average number of paid training days in 1985 for enlisted reservists was 42. In addition to the time constraint, there are a number of factors, such as the following, that affect the Reserves' ability to maintain high levels of individually qualified personnel: - Training courses are often longer than the 38-day reservist training requirement. Individual training must also compete with other unit operational and training requirements, and reservists cannot always take time away from their civilian employment to attend training. This is |