Now Hear This!

Coast Guard Personnel Management Transformation and Streamlining

By MCPO Harry Stevens, D7 West Command Master Chief

In my last article I asked the question "If you we King for a day, what three things would you change?"  I answered that by telling stations that there should be no more Non-Rates at units (except air stations for the airman program) and went on to explain my reasoning.  The other two things I would change are combination of Coast Guard Recruiting Command (CGRC), Coast Guard Personnel Command (CGPC) and Personnel Support Command (PSC) into one command, and the creation of a Training and Doctrine command.

In this article I will explore the combination of CGRC, CGPC and PSC.  In addition, there are several other components that should also be combined and those would be CG-12 (old G-WP) and CG-131 Reserve Affairs (G-WTR).  Each of these commands deal with different aspects of Coast Guard personnel, so lets explore what each does before we move on.

CGRC - The Recruiting Command sends Coast Guard men and women into schools and other venues to tell the Coast Guard story and attract people to a job in the Coast Guard.  They hand out a lot of material, make lots of phone calls, shake a lot of hands, and talk to a lot of people.  They say that it takes an average of 60 contacts to find one eligible person to bring into the Coast Guard.  CGRC is also responsible for the Coast Guard personnel at the Military Entrance Processing Stations (MEPS).  MEPS is the place where all potential recruits are medically checked to ensure they are ready to join the Coast Guard.

CGPC - The Military Personnel Command executes personnel actions under the authority of established statutes and personnel policy.  They are responsible for personnel actions including: assignments, evaluations, advancements/promotions, physical disabilities, separations and retirements.  CGPC is comprised of four divisions to carry out its mission of responsive personnel service; Officer Personnel Management Division (CGPC-opm), Enlisted Personnel Management Division (CGPC-epm), Reserve Personnel Management Division (CGPC-rpm) and Administration Division (CGPC-adm).

PSC - The Personnel Support Command provides compensation services for all Coast Guard military members, retirees, annuitants and other customers in support of the Department of Homeland Security missions.

CG-12 - Personnel Management Directorate oversees assignments, advancements and all direct entitlements such as pay and medical and is comprised of Civilian Personnel (CG-121); Military Personnel (CG-122); Policy and Standards, Medals and Awards, Compensation, and Housing; Workforce Forecasting and Analysis (CG-12A); Diversity Staff (CG-12B) and Uniform Distribution Center.

CG-131 - Reserve Affairs oversees the assignments, advancements and all direct entitlements, such as pay and medical, for reserve personnel.

All these entities deal with personnel management whether it is recruiting or discharging someone.  We should have a Coast Guard Personnel Command, which is charged solely with bringing in new personnel, managing them through a career and then putting them on the retirement roles.  This would bring unity of effort in personnel management.  To make all this work the Coast Guard would have to move all units into one place and that place should be in the center of the U.S.  That makes Oklahoma the perfect place to bring these commands together.  Some might think that since we are already in Topeka, Kan., that that would be the place to put the new Personnel Command.  But there are several other factors to consider and those are a national airport versus regional airport and proximity to DOD facilities.  It would also put them in the central time zone and this will afford those members in Alaska, Hawaii and Guam a better opportunity to communicate with the Assignment Officer (AO) or those in the recruiting and separations branches.  That one hour does not seem like much as you sit on the east coast, but for those that are stationed at all units west, it make huge difference.

Now that we have established the command and its location, we have to think about command and control.  When we took CG-12 and part of CG-13 (CG-131) we took one flag officer and part of a branch for another flag officer.  Doing away with a Flag billet is like trying to do away with a Master Chief billet...there will be a big fight.  So to avoid that and to put the Coast Guard in parity with DOD, the CG-12 flag billet would be moved to this new command to as its Commanding Officer.

Change is inevitable and sometimes necessary and I believe it is time for this change to help prepare the Coast Guard for what lies ahead.  As Adm. James Loy was fond of saying, "Preparation equals performance."

Semper Paratus-

That is all!

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