page_title: Individual augmentee
section_title: Current assignment and training model
hierarchical_section_title: Individual augmentee / Current assignment and training model
caption_attribution_description: English: Fort Jackson, S.C. (April 5, 2006) - Sailors prepare to enter a simulated building while participating in the Navy's Individual Augmentee Combat Training course at Fort Jackson, S.C. The fast paced, two week course is instructed by Army drill sergeants and is designed to provide Sailors with basic combat skills training prior to being deployed as individual augmentees mostly to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility (AOR). U.S. Navy photo by Journalist 1st Class Jackey Bratt (RELEASED)
context_page_description: An Individual augmentee is a United States military member attached to a unit as a temporary duty assignment. Individual Augmentees can be used to fill shortages or can be used when an individual with specialized knowledge or skill sets is required. As a result, Individual Augmentees can include members from an entirely different branch of service. The system was used extensively in the Iraq War, though with some criticism. By early 2007, there were an average of approximately 12,000 Navy personnel filling Army jobs in the United States, Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba and the Horn of Africa at any one time.
context_section_description: The current Individual Augmentee system approved by the United States Department of Defense works on a combination of ordered and volunteer assignments mirroring manning requirements.  The Army produces a document consisting of job requirements with the required skill sets as well as starting and ending dates. The job descriptions are converted to Navy equivalents and the personnel activities of these branches task local commanders with assigning the required personnel.  Volunteers are used first, and local commands issue orders for the remaining jobs based on local instructions.  For the Navy, excess shore billets are tapped first.
  As of June 5, 2008, United States Fleet Forces Command has responsibility of the Individual Augmentee training program. 
  In January 2006 the McCrady Training Center at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, became the central training facility for Navy personnel assigned as Individual Augmentees.  The center, operated by Task Force Marshall, is also a South Carolina Army National Guard facility, and the Individual Augmentee training program is modeled closely after the refresher training conducted for drilling reservists. 
  Prior to using this centralized facility personnel were trained in several other locations including Fort Lewis, Washington, Camp Shelby, Mississippi, Fort Bliss, Texas, and Fort Benning, Georgia.  The McCrady facility is capable of processing up to 600 students at once with an annual budget of $16.7 million.
  Curriculum at McCrady includes basic combat skills.  The three-week course is not designed to build Army infantrymen since even for Army personnel a significant amount of training occurs not in Basic Combat Training but in the experience of years on the job.  Instead, the program is designed to teach individuals assigned to Army units the basic skills required to stay alive should the worst scenario occur.  In keeping with this, topics covered in the training include basic marksmanship (Navy personnel must qualify on the same course of fire as Army personnel), combat first aid, land navigation, urban operations and an introduction to Army culture. Perhaps most important is training in convoy and counter-IED operations since these subjects are crucial to survival in Afghanistan and Iraq.
  It's important to note that the vast majority of Navy Individual Augmentees are assigned to combat support or combat service support roles, and only a small percentage of Individual Augmentees have seen combat. While some risk exposure in a war zone is inevitable, most joint commands in Iraq and Afghanistan have specific controls in place to limit the exposure of personnel who are not trained for such high risk operations.
  Even with the additional training and limited combat exposure of most Individual Augmentees, deaths have occurred.  While the Navy has sustained 73 casualties in the combined efforts of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, many of these individuals were Naval Combatants or Direct Support Enablers SEAL, EOD, Hospital Corpsmen, or Seabee whose roles were not typical of most Navy personnel.
caption: Sailors preparing to enter a simulated building while participating in the Navy's Individual Augmentee Combat Training course at Fort Jackson.
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