Essay on Militaries Redeployment Process

What is redeployment? Redeployment is an unknown word to some, yes, it is a common word in the English language. The concept or definition of deployment is “The movement of troops or equipment to a place or position for military action” then simply add Re to the front of it. When you hear of service members deploying you hear that word deploying. However, when they redeploy all you hear is “They are coming home” or “they will be home soon!”

This doesn’t change what a redeployment is, redeployment is a high visibility movement just like deployment. The process of returning service members back to there home of record requires visibility from movement back to the states, medical out processing, financial processing, administration processing and various other aspects to ensure a service member is not left negatively impacted by the deployment to a conflict or combat zone.    

Redeployment in comparison to reverse logistics management

As mentioned above redeployment is the process of service members returning from the intended combat zone they were sent to. This is comparable reverse logistics management since reverse logistics management is the process of returning a product of good back to the manufacturer. The only difference is with redeployment of military personnel they are living beings. If someone goes awry the process is affecting an individual’s life most likely for the negative. If in a reverse logistics management process something goes awry it will just sit there and cause a profit loss or a minor inconvenience.

Redeployment in a combat environment per the Army Logistician journal is complex, for a unit to redeploy they need a replacement. This is called a relief in place from the army logistician directly” As the division was preparing to execute its redeployment, the available corps transportation assets at FOB Speicher were simultaneously conducting their own deployment, relief-in-place, and corps support missions. This further restricted the number of transportation assets available to move the division out” (Kinberg & Gallo, 2006) What CPT Kinberg was saying in this insert is when a unit redeploys there has to simultaneously be a unit coming in. The army has a Field manual that dictates unless congress or a Force command led by a 3 star says so every unit has a replacement.

The Army’s logistics process consists of three main branches Transportation, Quartermaster, and Ordnance. The Army can organically support a large percentage of logistics moves and resupplies. However, they rely on privately owned companies to support redeployments and deployments. Without the use of a private company the trucks, generators and Connexus (Containers 20’) would not get where they needed to go. This is like reverse logistics management because companies don’t move their own stuff generally. Take Apple for example, when Apple has a return from the intended customer there is not Apple trucks or apple shipping company that picks it up. The intended customer will take it to fedex, ups or usps to return the product to Apple.

Conclusion

In conclusion the militaries redeployment process is like reverse logistics management. However, the military redeployment requires a higher scale of visibility since these are real living beings. They aren’t just a phone being sent back for being broken or unwanted. The process used by the military is simple, relief in place before they redeploy to keep constant support in operation. Once relief is provided the unit will transport back to the states to out process to ensure nothing is dropped in the process with finance or administration.