Military Review English Edition July-August 2015 | Page 95

REGIONALLY ALIGNED FORCE

Capt. Cory R. Scharbo, U.S. Army, is serving as a force integration officer in the Force Management Division, U.S.
Army Africa, Vicenza, Italy. He attended the U.S. Army Force Management School, Fort Belvoir, Virginia. He
holds a BA from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and an MA from American Military University. His previous
assignments include 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Georgia, and 4th
Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, with deployments in support of
Operations Iraqi Freedom, New Dawn, and Enduring Freedom.

Notes
1. U.S. Army Africa: Regionally Aligned Force (Brigade) Conference
Packet, (August 2012), presented to the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat
Team (2nd ABCT), 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, KS, October 2012.
2. David E. Brown, AFRICOM at 5 years: The Maturation of a New U.S.
Combatant Command, The Letort Papers (Carlisle, PA: U.S. Army War
College, Strategic Studies Institute, August 2013), 3-29, http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB1164.pdf (accessed 8 April 2015).
3. The White House, National Security Strategy (May 2010), https://
www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/national_security_strategy.pdf (accessed 9 April 2015).
4. The White House and the Office of the Secretary of Defense,
Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for the 21st Century Defense,
(Washington, D.C: U.S. Government Printing Office: January 2012), 1-8.
5. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Capstone Concept for Joint Operations: Joint
Force 2020 (Washington, DC: Joint Chiefs of Staff, 10 September 2012), 4.
6. Office of the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff of the
Army, 2012 Army Strategic Planning Guidance, Raymond T. Odierno
and John M. McHugh, (Department of the Army: Washington, DC,
April 2012), 14.
7. Ibid., 14-19.
8. Col. Gus Benton, U.S. Army, “Memorandum: 2/1 ABCT RAF [Regionally Aligned Forces] Interim Lessons Learned Report” (Fort Leavenworth, KS: U.S. Army Irregular Warfare Center, 31 October 2013).
9. Kristian Matthew Marks, “Enabling Theater Security Cooperation Through Regionally Aligned Forces” (research paper, U.S. Army
War College, March 2013), 10-35, http://www.dtic.mil/get-tr-doc/pdf?AD=ADA589419 (accessed 7 April 2015).
10. U.S. Army G-3/5/7 [Operations and Plans], “Regional Alignment
of Forces. Purpose: Discuss RAF Way Ahead and Address Concerns
from ASCCs [Army Service component commands],” Army Staff, Pentagon (Washington, DC, 25 October 2012), 6-7, quoted in Col. Kirk Dorr,
U.S. Army, “Dagger on Point: Assessing the Regionally Aligned Brigade”
(research paper, U.S. Army War College, April 2013), 13-14, http://
www.dtic.mil/get-tr-doc/pdf?AD=ADA592824 (accessed 7 April 2015).
11. U.S. Army Africa (USARAF), USARAF Trip Reports April–June
2013, “Sniper Training in Burundi, 15 April-24 May 2013” and “Engineers in Support of Mobility Operations in Malawi, 10-14 June 2013.”
12. 2nd ABCT, 1st Infantry Division, “Dagger Brigade 2nd Brigade,
1st Infantry Division: Consolidated RAB AAR [Regionally Aligned Brigade After Action Review],” slides 1 to 25 of packet presented 21 May
2014 to incoming unit, Fort Riley, KS. The Shared Accord 13 Live Fire Exercise, South Africa, 25 July to 4 August 2013, was one of several major
operations supported by 2nd ABCT. The Eastern Accord 14 Command Post Exercise, Uganda, 27 March to 14 April 2014, was a major
partnered training operation. It included the RAF battalion command,
MILITARY REVIEW  July-August 2015

and corps leaders from the Uganda military. The operation involved the
entire battalion staff, forty-eight people including the command group,
from 2nd ABCT. Tasks included establishing a command post and tactical operations center, four days of academic study, four days of practical
exercises, an after action review, and redeployment.
13. Thomas H. Roe, “CALL Interim Report on Regionally Aligned
Forces in U.S. Army Africa,” (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Center for Army
Lessons Learned, 19 March 2014), 9.
14. Asymmetric Warfare Group, Analysis of Support to the Regionally Aligned Force (Fort Meade, MD: Asymmetric Warfare Group, June
2014), 3-4.
15. Benton, “Memorandum,” 7-8.
16. The institutional Army, including staff at the Pentagon, the
combatant commands, and below, apply business rules to the work
and responsibilities at each level. The rules maintain processes and
standards for accomplishing specific tasks, leading to orders and plans.
The regionally aligned forces business rules nest with Army (Pentagon)
business rules and are shaped to best practices and procedures for
the current mission. The rules ensure that units are properly assigned,
allocated, or aligned with the combatant command and in accordance
with the Global Force Management Implementation Guidance (GFMIG)
business rules.
17. Roe, “Call Interim Report,” 2-3.
18. Ibid., 1-3.
19. Ibid., 2.
20. Asymmetric Warfare Group, Analysis of Support, June 2014, 3-4.
21. Roe, “CALL Interim Report,” 8.
22. Ibid., 4-7.
23. Ibid., 5-9.
24. John R. Bray, “Strategic Analysis of Regional Alignment of United
States Army Forces,” research paper, U.S. Army War College (Carlisle,
PA: U.S. Army War College, March 2013), 15–17, www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/
GetTRDoc?AD=ADA589044 (accessed 8 April 2015).
25. Roe, “CALL Interim Report,” 7-9.
26. Kimberly Field, James Learmont, and Jason Charland, “Regionally Aligned Forces: Business Not as Usual,” Parameters 43 (3) (Autumn
2013): 62-63.
27. Asymmetric Warfare Group, Analysis of Support, 4.
28. Roe, “CALL Interim Report,” 8.
29. FORSCOM 121700ZOCT13 FY14/15 Mission Alignment
Order for Assigned, Allocated, and Service Retained Command
Aligned (SRCA) Forces and GFMAP [Global Force Management Allocation Pla n], Joint Staff Business Rules, GFMIG and FY NDAA [National
Defense Authorization Act, Public Law 113-66, Section 513(a), 26
December 2013].
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