The Army and Marine Corps use established mechanisms that allow them to categorize and track personnel with specific skill sets. Specifically, each service uses Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) and additional skill identifiers to categorize the specific jobs and skill sets of officers and enlisted servicemembers. Department of the Army Pamphlet 600-3, Department of the Army Pamphlet 600-25, Department of the Army Pamphlet 611-21, and the Marine Corps’ Military Occupational Specialties Manual outline the MOS and skill identifiers for officers and enlisted personnel.extend over one or more grades. For instance, infantrymen in the Army have an MOS of 11B, while those in the Marine Corps have an MOS of 03. Each MOS outlines a path for career development and management of each MOS by grade. This path helps direct the training, education, and experience that will guide a servicemember in career development, but it does not guarantee that individual’s success. Instead, it describes the full spectrum of development opportunities that an officer or enlisted servicemember is expected to pursue throughout his or her career. For example, majors seeking promotion to lieutenant colonel in the field artillery branch of the Army are expected to continue their professional development by completing certain required military education and serving in key assignments such as fires brigade S3, as well as The MOS describes a set of related duties and tasks that developmental assignments such as training developer. Further, these majors are expected to continue self-development efforts to build organizational leadership and strategic perspective, and to hone operational skills. In addition to the MOS, a skill identifier is a career-management tool that identifies specific skills that are required to perform the duties of a particular position and are not related to any one branch, functional area, or career field. For example, all Army infantry officers who have met ranger training requirements will have a skill identifier of 5R, and those who have met parachutist training requirements will have a skill identifier of 5P. As servicemembers obtain additional skills not related to their primary skill set, they can be awarded an additional skill identifier associated with that skill set, based on their meeting criteria laid out in training standards or manuals. MOS and additional skill identifiers are maintained in the personnel data systems for the Army and Marine Corps and can be searched to identify personnel with certain experience. DOD has established a requirement for the services to identify and track personnel who have completed SFA-related training, education, or experience in the Defense Readiness Reporting System with a relevant skill-designator indicating their SFA qualifications. According to Department of the Army headquarters officials, the Army has developed a mechanism to identify and track personnel who have completed certain SFA-related training and education and is considering steps to take toward identifying and tracking personnel with SFA-related experience, but it has not made a decision on what approach it will take. Further, the Army has not developed a plan with goals and milestones to identify and track personnel with SFA-related experience. The Marine Corps is in the process of implementing a means to identify and track individuals with SFA-related training, education, and experience. In October 2010, DOD issued an instruction—DOD Instruction (DODI) 5000.68— that broadly defines SFA and outlines responsibilities for key stakeholders to plan, prepare for, and execute SFA activities. The instruction states that DOD shall develop and maintain the capability within DOD general purpose forces, special operations forces, and the civilian expeditionary workforce to conduct SFA activities in support of U.S. policy and in coordination with the relevant U.S. government departments or agencies. The instruction further states that DOD shall conduct SFA activities with the appropriate combination of general purpose forces, special operations forces, and civilian expeditionary workforce under a variety of conditions that include: (1) politically sensitive environments where an overt U.S. presence is unacceptable to the host-country government; (2) environments where a limited, overt U.S. presence is acceptable to the host-country government; and (3) environments where a large-scale U.S. presence is considered necessary and acceptable to the host-country government. The instruction further requires that the secretaries of the military departments identify and track individuals who have completed SFA-related training, education, or experience in the Defense Readiness Reporting Systemskill-designator indicating their SFA qualifications. According to DODI 5000.68, the secretaries shall develop, maintain, and institutionalize capabilities of servicemembers to support DOD efforts to organize, train, equip, and advise foreign military forces. Having the ability to identify and track individuals with SFA-related training, education, and experience will assist DOD in institutionalizing SFA capabilities. Officials at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Department of the Army, and Headquarters Marine Corps stated that it was important to be able to identify and track servicemembers with SFA-related training, education, and experience so that they could be utilized for future SFA missions. Having this tracking capability will assist the Army and Marine Corps in identifying the right people to carry out SFA activities. with a relevant In April 2011, the Joint Requirements Oversight Council issued a memorandum endorsing certain recommended SFA actions. As we reported in 2012, the memorandum identified 25 tasks related to the implementation of SFA across DOD in the areas of doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, and facilities. According to SFA Working Group officials, this memorandum does not constitute policy. However, like DODI 5000.68, it emphasizes the need to identify and track personnel with SFA-related training, education, and experience. For example, one of the tasks that was emphasized for the services was the need to establish skill identifiers for military personnel with SFA-related training and experience, and the need to track these personnel. According to the memorandum, this task was to be completed by the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, the services, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, and United States Special Operations Command by April 2013. According to officials, an SFA Steering Committee and Working Group were established in January 2011 to coordinate the department’s efforts to develop SFA policy and capabilities and manage the implementation of DODI 5000.68. According to officials with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, SFA continues to be a priority for DOD. As a result, officials stated that an instruction on irregular warfare and SFA is being drafted in order to emphasize how DOD will conduct SFA activities. Among other things, according to officials, the instruction will reiterate the importance of identifying and tracking personnel with SFA-related training, education, and experience so that they can be utilized for future missions. Irregular warfare is defined as a violent struggle among state and nonstate actors for legitimacy and influence over the relevant populations. It favors indirect and asymmetric approaches, though it may employ the full range of military and other capacities, in order to erode an adversary’s power, influence, and will. The Army has taken steps toward identifying and tracking personnel with certain SFA-related training and education, but efforts to identify and track SFA-related experience are incomplete. Officials told us that since 2008, they have been identifying and tracking soldiers who attend certain SFA training with a Personnel Development Skill Identifier code. The Army uses Personnel Development Skill Identifier codes in combination with an area of concentration or MOS to identify unique skills, training, and experience personnel may obtain during their careers. Normally, the principal organizations or agency may request establishment of a Personnel Development Skill Identifier code for tracking unique skills, training, or experience where identification of qualified personnel would be beneficial to the Army. Personnel Development Skill Identifier codes identify skills, training, and experience that do not meet the minimum standards for establishment of an additional skill identifier or have too few individuals meeting the qualifications to warrant the creation of an additional skill identifier. For example, the Army has created Personnel Development Skill Identifier codes to identify and track soldiers who have completed congressional fellowship training, completed training and 6- month deployment in support of United Nations peacekeeping operations, and completed training for the maintenance of various weapons systems. With regard to certain SFA-related training and education, the Army has established Personnel Development Skill Identifier codes for the following training activities: successfully completing a resident advisor training course at Fort Riley and Fort Polk; successfully completing an advisor training course at the Phoenix Academy in Iraq; and successfully completing advisor training offered by the mobile training team from Fort Polk. Army officials acknowledged that while these Personnel Development Skill Identifier codes can be used to identify and track soldiers who attend these SFA-related training courses, the codes do not identify and track the actual experience that a soldier obtains from serving in an SFA- related role or any other SFA-related training and education that soldiers might receive. For example, according to an Army official, one brigade that is regionally aligned to Africa receives SFA-related training through a course called Dagger University at Fort Riley that is not captured by any of the existing Personnel Development Skill Identifier codes. Further, Army officials noted that some personnel trained in these activities might not have actually served in these roles. Army officials stated that the Army has been considering steps to take toward identifying and tracking personnel with SFA experience, but has not yet developed a mechanism with which to do so. Officials from Department of the Army Headquarters Operations and Plans office stated that they have ongoing efforts to identify the best approach, which may include developing or expanding on existing Personnel Development Skill Identifier codes, or creating an additional skill identifier or MOS to meet the requirement in DODI 5000.68 to identify and track personnel with SFA-related experience.