The Commander of U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) is the primary U.S. military authority in the Pacific area of responsibility. PACOM’s area of responsibility spans approximately half the earth’s surface and encompasses 36 countries, including Australia, China, India, Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea. PACOM is supported by four service component commands: U.S. Army Pacific; U.S. Pacific Air Forces; U.S. Marine Forces, Pacific, and the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Each component command is generally responsible for its service’s actions and missions within the PACOM area of responsibility. In addition, PACOM has two subordinate unified commands, which help support the combatant command’s presence in the region. In Japan, U.S. Forces Japan supports U.S. forward presence and ensures bilateral defense cooperation with the government of Japan. In Korea, U.S. Forces Korea coordinates U.S. military operations and activities in South Korea. DOD describes OCS as the process of planning for and obtaining supplies, services, and construction from commercial sources in support of joint operations. OCS encompasses three functions: contract support integration, contracting support, and contractor management. These functions and their associated tasks are described in figure 1. Determining OCS requirements, as well as conducting the initial planning for and coordination of these tasks, is primarily an operational, versus a contracting, function. As a result, and according to joint doctrine, all of the directorates within a command have OCS roles or responsibilities. The 2014 update to Joint Publication 4-10 introduced the concept of an OCS Integration Cell as a central coordination point that can, among other things, provide staff integration by assisting and advising the directorates on these issues. The Defense Logistics Agency’s Joint Contingency Acquisition Support Office provides support to combatant command OCS planning efforts and training events, and, when requested, advises, assists, and supports joint force command oversight of OCS operations. Additionally, the Joint Contingency Acquisition Support Office provides the combatant commander joint OCS planners embedded within the combatant command staff, including as part of their OCS Integration Cells. The department uses contingency planning to develop its operation plans, which describe how DOD will respond to a potential event that might require the use of military force, such as terrorism, hostile foreign nations, and natural disasters. An operation plan generally consists of a base plan and annexes. The base plan describes the concept of operations, major forces, sustainment concept, and anticipated timelines for completing the mission. The annexes of an operational plan provide further details on areas such as logistics (Annex D), personnel (Annex E), and OCS (Annex W). Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Manual 3130.03, Adaptive Planning and Execution (APEX) Planning Formats and Guidance, provides more detailed guidance on the format of plans, including templates for the base plan and annexes. As described in Joint Publication 5-0, Joint Operation Planning, the framework for military operational planning generally encompasses six phases, ranging from Phase 0 to Phase V. Phases are distinct in time, space, or purpose from one another. According to Joint Publication 5-0, Phase 0 or steady-state operations encompass normal and routine military activities performed to dissuade or deter potential adversaries and to assure or solidify relationships with allies. In general, terms such as steady-state operations, steady-state environment, and Phase 0 are used in reference to peacetime operations or to denote the absence of a declared contingency operation. Phases I through V generally involve the demonstration and use of military forces to deter an adversary, seize the initiative, dominate the adversary, participate in stability operations subsequent to combat operations, and support civil authorities, respectively. Personnel accountability is the general process by which commanders identify, capture, and record information about the number and type of personnel, including contractor personnel, in their area of operations. To help commanders improve their ability to account for contractor personnel (which may include U.S. citizen, third-country, and local national personnel, depending on the circumstances), DOD uses a database— Synchronized Predeployment and Operational Tracker (SPOT)—to serve as the department’s central repository for contractor personnel accountability data in contingency operations. Specifically, SPOT assists the combatant commander in ensuring that accountability, visibility, force protection, medical support, personnel recovery, and other related support can be accurately forecasted and provided for the contractor personnel in the command’s area of responsibility. When specified by contract, vendors are responsible for inputting and maintaining their employees’ personnel data in SPOT throughout the employees’ periods of performance. Personnel accountability is also conducted by means of the Joint Personnel Status Report database. According to PACOM guidance, PACOM headquarters and subordinate activities are to report the total number of DOD-affiliated personnel assigned to PACOM (inclusive of all applicable active-duty service members, selected reservists, DOD civilian employees, and DOD contractors ), as well as other DOD personnel physically present in the PACOM area of responsibility. Personnel status reports are to be submitted weekly. This information, along with SPOT and service-specific accountability systems, typically feed information into DOD’s primary accountability system—Joint Personnel Accountability Reconciliation and Reporting—to produce joint personnel status reports, which include military, civilian, and contractor employees. Vendor vetting and contractor employee screening are processes by which DOD conducts intelligence-based threat mitigation to minimize operational risks potentially posed by contracted companies and their employees. Vendor Vetting: DOD contracting officers are required to check prospective contractors’ names against a list of prohibited, restricted, or otherwise ineligible entities in a U.S. government contracting database called the System for Award Management. The database contains a list of sanctioned and other prohibited entities identified by the Department of the Treasury, Department of State, DOD, and other U.S. agencies. Additionally, Joint Staff guidance discusses the establishment of a foreign-vendor vetting cell within a combatant command to vet selected local national and third-country national companies to prevent DOD from awarding contracts to companies having ties to insurgents or other inappropriate entities. Generally, such vetting consists of researching the principal owners and connections of the company using information provided by owners and then cross-checking this information against various intelligence sources. Contractor Employee Screening: According to joint doctrine, subordinate and individual base commanders are responsible for the security of military facilities within the combatant commander’s area of responsibility. Joint doctrine notes that part of this process is the screening and badging of contractor personnel who are authorized to have base access. A contractor employee screening process can mitigate the potential security risk that third-country and local national contractor personnel may pose when they have access to DOD facilities. PACOM does not fully account for contractor personnel in a steady-state environment, and does not have a process to vet foreign vendors. DOD guidance requires accountability for certain contractor personnel during contingency operations, but contractor accountability guidance in steady- state environments is unclear. In the absence of clear guidance from DOD, PACOM has used multiple mechanisms for contractor personnel accountability, which has resulted in inconsistent reporting. PACOM subsequently issued accountability guidance in November 2016, but it is limited in that it excludes foreign-national contractors. Additionally, PACOM does not have a process in place to vet foreign vendors in contingency operations due to a lack of DOD guidance that clarifies what foreign-vendor vetting steps or process should be established at each combatant command. DOD guidance provides procedures for identifying, capturing, and recording information about certain contractor personnel in combatant command areas of operation during applicable contingency operations outside the United States. For example: DOD Instruction 3020.41 states contractor visibility and accountability shall be maintained in applicable contingency operations through a common joint database, SPOT, or its successor. Joint Publication 4-10 states that DOD policy requires accountability of all contractors authorized to accompany the force, as well as other contractor employees designated by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) or combatant commander, in SPOT. It notes that contractor personnel visibility and accountability are essential to determine and resource government support requirements in uncertain, hostile, or austere operational environments, and that accountability of contractor personnel may be a critical information requirement for commanders in some operations. A Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement clause, to be used in certain contracts, requires the contractor to use SPOT to enter and maintain data for all contractors authorized to accompany the force and, as designated, other contractor employees supporting U.S. armed forces deployed outside the United States in applicable operations, including contingency operations, or other designated military operations or exercises. In addition, PACOM has issued guidance regarding contractor personnel accountability during contingencies. For example, PACOM Instruction 0601.7 indicates that personnel-directorate officials are to provide status reports via SPOT for contractors authorized to accompany the force. Similarly, PACOM Instruction 0250.1 states that subordinate commands are to implement the use of SPOT for the tracking and accountability of contractors authorized to accompany the force, as directed by PACOM headquarters. Both Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and PACOM guidance on personnel accountability call for the use of Joint Personnel Status Reports, which are meant, in part, to authenticate the total number of personnel, including military, DOD civilian, and DOD contractor personnel, who are physically present in a geographic combatant commander’s area of responsibility.