87th USAR Training Support Division
Dawn Campbell
1801 Chace Lake Parkway
Birmingham, AL 35244
205-873-9440
biaunka1121@yahoo.com
GM 591
October 16, 2010
Mr. Michael Carr

 The 87th Training Support Division has been around for a very long time. The lineage is traced back (Global Security, 2000) to the 87th Infantry Division which activated and organized at Camp Pike, Arkansas, on 15 August 1917. The Division served as part of the American Expeditionary Force in France during the First World War. The Division entered the combat zone late in the war and primarily conducted Combat Support missions including: construction projects;performing guard duty; military police operations; convoy escort; and many miscellaneous logistics and supply details. The Division was moving to the front lines in November of 1918, the war ended and the Division returned home for deactivation in July 1919. In 1921, the Division reconstituted as part of the Organized Reserves. This unit has participated in three War's starting with World War II. The name of the unit has gone from the 87th Infantry Division to the 87th MAC in 1957 and now the 87th USAR Training Support Division. This lets you know the clout this unit sits on. There have been numerous commanders and many Soldiers to come through those gates, so has there been plenty of people leave. This unit has a mobilized task to handle 9 Brigades and 4 Divisions. The task as written is to process mobilization packets without fail to deploy Soldiers to 4 different countries to include the United States. The unit is also responsible for training and supporting these units for War. The training of the units can come from the hands on training on processing a mobilization packet to training a Soldier on the fundamentals of shooting a weapon. This unit has a big task to fill but it does come with some organizational problems. This unit hires and fires people and doesn't go by the book to accomplish these missions. I will look into the hiring process of a Governmental employee, the firing process of a Governmental employee, and what can be done to correct the errors within the 87th USAR Training Support Division. Government jobs are a very real thing. It seems as though you submit your application for a Government job and you hear nothing. Most Government jobs are submitted by a program that scans your application looking for key words. If the program does not pick up the keywords your resume is never looked at. The sites available are USAJOBS and CPOL. These sites are sites you can go on to look for employment and apply. There are two classes of jobs with the Federal Government; those in civil service, and those in excepted service. Competitive service jobs (USAJOBS, 2007) are subject to the civil service laws passed by Congress to ensure that applicants and employees receive fair and equal treatment in the hiring process. A basic principle of Federal employment is that all candidates must meet the qualification requirements before they hired into the position.Excepted service agencies set their own qualification requirements and are not subject to the same Congressional laws; however, they are subject to Veterans' preference. Some Federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have only accepted service positions. Other agencies may have both types of positions. These service related jobs do not depend on whether a person has served in the United States Armed Forces. If you meet the criteria of one of the jobs listed on the Jobs site you can apply. Make sure you have the keywords and you will get hired. The agencies are required to post the positions on OPM's USAJOBS site whenever a position comes available and they are looking to fill it. This allows all, inside and outside the agency to see the listing and apply. Remember, an agency is (USAJOBS, 2007) under no obligation to make a selection. In some instances, an agency may cancel the posting and choose to re-announce the vacancy at a later time. USAJOBS is the Federal Government's official Employment Information System. On USAJOBS, you can explore over 30,000 jobs on any given day; build and store up to five resumes for applying to Federal jobs; and access a wide-range of information about Federal agencies and different Federal employment issues. Agencies can do their own recruiting and hiring but the jobs must be posted for all to apply. Since some agencies would rather do their own hiring the procedures and methods that they are looking for vary. Agencies can ask for as much or as little additional information as they desire. This information depends on what they are looking for as far as the job is concerned. If an agency is asking for information and it is not given this can result in your application not being reviewed or even submitted to the agency for hire. The procedure to apply for different agencies is very tedious but the benefit is worth it if you are the one that gets the job. Most people look at the benefits package that a Federal agency offers more so than the pay, but the pay can be very competitive. Long ago, applicants (US Government Hiring Process, 1999) for federal jobs often languished, waiting to hear from their selected agencies for several months. The application process has become much more streamlined today. Although every situation is different, many applicants today hear back from recruiters or hiring managers within a month. However, the security clearance process can delay a job change, sometimes for an excruciatingly long time. If you are desperate to leave your job this week, a job with the federal government that requires a high-level security clearance will not get you out of your present situation by Friday. There are three types of Security Clearance; Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret. Confidential lets you view documents of a confidential nature and has to be reinstated every 15 years. This type of clearance can cause a breach in security, which it is considered the lowest form of security clearance. The next is the Secret clearance which must be reinvestigated every ten years. This type of clearance allows access to the Internet and any documents that are of confidential nature up to secret. Last but not least is the Top Secret clearance which has to be reinvestigated every five years. This type of clearance allows the patron the rights to see Top Secret information and all of the other aspects of the other two types of clearances. Within each of these groupings, ( Federal Government Security Clearance, 2000) there are still more specialized clearances, and holding a clearance for one category of information does not automatically authorize you to have access to other information at the same clearance level. The clearance process does not begin until you sign a conditional hire statement. Clearance process can go from checking background, credit, job references, to previous clearances. This process is done by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The agency can hire you with conditional employment, but it depends on the agency. If you are hired with conditional employment you will not have access or privy to any information or site until the clearance has been releases. Some agencies do not want the hassle of training someone that may or may not get a clearance so they would rather wait until the clearance comes back before they start the employee to work. This process is very tedious so is patient. Just like there is a process to get hired by the Federal Government there is a process to be fired. Hiring is less difficult to do than firing when it comes to a Federal Government employee. The firing process takes a meeting of the township which entails a hearing. This process must be met after the employee has been first-verbal warning, second-written warning, third-three day suspension, four-seven day suspension, and five-30-day suspension. This process must be adhered to before a manager can even submit an application for termination to the township. The application can be accepted or denied based on the evidence given. If the application is denied then the process must begin again at number one. This process has many hiccups in it because if the employee belongs to a Federal Government agency that is unionized then the employee has a right to file a grievance at any stage in the process and have it eradicated. This process is long and drawn out but has no room for errors. The reason for the process is for litigation reasons. If an employee feels as if the agency released them erroneously then they have every right to arbitrate or decide to go straight to litigation. This litigation is not directed at the Federal Government, because it is very hard to sue our Government, but it is directed at the township and the people that handled the process. The goal of the (From Hiring to Firing, 2007) termination process is to bring about the end of the employment relationship as painlessly as possible for both the employee and the township. Also, part of the desired goal is to place the township in a position where it can successfully defend its employment decisions before a court or other fact-finder. At the very least, a township must ask the following questions: What happened? (Talk with the employee and a witness to findout.) Has it happened before? Is there documentation? Was the action necessary? Was the action appropriate? Was the action uniform and consistent with actions taken insimilar situations or with policies or practices addressing theissue? Has the employee complained of discrimination, harassment orfailure to accommodate a disability? If so, have such complaintsbeen properly addressed? Does the discharge appear to be in retaliation for any previouslyfiled discrimination claim or charge?
Even after all these questions have been asked there still lies the chance of the township deciding against the termination of the said Federal Government employee. The firing process is a very tedious process but it must be maintained within the Governmental agencies because there is always room for slip ups. Even if you handle the whole firing process to the letter it could take as long as four years to actually fire a Federal Governmental employee. After they are fired they can still file a grievance and the company be in questionable error and be given their job back.

The 87th Training Support Division has been around a very long time so this process has gone from firing to hiring and back to firing again. The organization as a whole has had some very good employees. The question lies in how they get hired. The 87th is mandated to post jobs on the USAJOBS site and give everyone a chance to apply for the positions. Within the last three years this process has gone out the window. People within the agency are starting jobs that were never advertised and this has become a habit at this unit. Within the past three years there has been eight people fired, twenty-two people hired and seven people sent to other agencies to fill vacancies. The unit has fired eight people with no write ups just a call into the office and fired. These people have been subjected to no township meeting, and no grievance process. They have been asked to turn over their badges and barred from the premises. These people have filed complaints and some have also started litigation but none have come back to the job they once had. They have either been offered a lesser pay job at another agency or just not come back all together. This is a problem because most of the employees that did decide to go the litigation process way opted to sue the Federal Government as oppose to the township or the people that were directly related to their firing. To sue the Federal Government is a very hard thing. The Federal government enjoys sovereign immunity. This does not mean that they cannot be sued only that the process is very long and difficult. Some say that the Federal Government has immunity so in order to sue the Government you must defect and belong to another Government in order to sue. This is a myth, but it is very hard. Most people that have attempted this task have given up, run out of money or just decided that it is not worth it. The employees that did opt to sue the Federal Government did give up and decide to go on to another job that was not a Federal Government agency. Oh by the way if you have been fired by the Federal Government your clearance is revoked and this process to get it back if very rare. Without a clearance the process of working for another Federal Government agency is slim to none. Being as though there have been eight people fired within the past three years the people that filed these positions once they were released are also in question. It is not possible to fire someone one day and already have a replacement for that person the following week. The hiring process takes time and therefore this process is not valid. The 87th has done the deed of firing one day and already having a replacement the next week. They called around to ask if they had someone that was in need of a job and before the call was answered the position had already been filled. The position was not posted on any website; it was not advertised in the building on any board and the people inside and outside the agency was not privy to this position. It was told upon questioning that the position was a critical position and had to be filled immediately. There are also positions that people hold that go on to mobilize with other units and their positions are left until they return. These positions are being back filled by the unit with people within the agency on a temporary hire basis without any type of application process. This as I stated before is not the protocol that should be used in a hiring procedure. Military has different types of employees; Military Technicians, AGR, and Reservists. Military technicians are (CRS Report for Congress, 1999) federal civilian employees who provide support primarily to wartime deployable reserve units. Unlike regular civilian employees, military technicians are generally required to maintain membership in the Selected Reserve as a condition of their employment. These technicians are referred to as “dual-status”technicians, reflecting their status as both federal civilian employees and military reservists. The intent of this requirement is to guarantee that when a reserve unit is mobilized, the military technicians who support that unit will be mobilized as well. The Military Technician does not have the right to go out and solicit a mobilization with any unit other than the unit assigned. The unit assigned must mobilize the entire unit before mobilizing the Military Technician. The reason for this is because the Military has hired these technicians to aid and support a particular unit and if they decide to mobilize outside of the unit assigned then this leaves a critical position vacant until the Soldier can return. This process is enacted by Congress and not up for discussion. The 87th has bypassed this act and allowed some of their Military Technicians to mobilize with other units leaving their positions vacant. Since the position is vacant it is not supposed to be back filled?The positions are being temporarily back filled by the unit and the positions are not being advertised. The unit's manning rosters are attached. One roster shows the BDEs that the 87th are responsible for, one shows the components that the BDEs make up, and one shows the DIVs that the 87th give support to but are not directly responsible for. These manning rosters give a good example of what should be in the unit but yet there are discrepancies because of all the maneuvering around.





These charts represent the totals of what is supposed to be in the unit thus far. The totals are not correct because there are many differences in the hiring processes that haven't been reported. The charts represent the units that the 87th are responsible for and the three divisions that they oversee. This unit oversees divisions because we have capabilities that most of our other divisions do not have. When the organizational chart was revamped and the units were reorganized they did not take into account some of the capabilities of the units. These left divisions without RLAS capabilities, PERNET Capabilities and some didn't have access to see outside of their unit. This was a problem because they were not able to function as a division should. So the 87th was the division that handled all of these things before the restructure so they continued to handle them afterwards. The 87th USAR Training Support Division has used the "good old boy" system to get around the system and the process of hiring and firing and it should not be tolerated anymore. The system that is in place at this unit should be put under investigation and there should be a manning of who comes and who goes within this organization. The investigation was done in August of this year and they found fault among some of the key leaders in the unit. This did not stop the malicious acts of orchestrating the hiring process yet again. The system has been put under scrutiny and this situation will be revised but I do not know if this will give Soldiers their jobs back or rehire those that have been fired. The system at the 87th USAR Training Support Division was investigated due to an anonymous call from a concerned citizen. This citizen was no longer a member of the military but they did evaluate some wrong doing on several occasions when they came up to the unit for different services. This is a person I believe that has been around the military for a long time and knows how things should be ran. The investigation was not for the hiring process but for the conditions and morale of the unit. Most of the Soldiers in the unit just continue each day as a new work day, but there had to be one that complained to this retired member to make him feel as if there was a just call for the issue. The next set of investigations is set to begin November or that it is said. This next set of investigations will look into all the files at the unit, the personnel, and the backgrounds. No one at the unit is privy to when the investigations will actually begin but this is an approximate date as to when they will begin. The personnel of the unit will be investigated and I know this will mean that some will lose their jobs just as they erroneously received them. The 87th USAR Training Support Division has been around for a long time but it is speculated that this unit will be disbanded after the investigations and they find out what this unit has been up to. If the unit is not disbanded then I feel as though all those people in high places that made some of these crooked decisions to hire their buddies and friends should be asked to leave the military and surrender their badges just as others were asked to before them. This is a very bad situation that this unit has found them in. The act that has been committed against others and against the OPM Board and the township. These offenses are punishable by law, with fine and/or imprisonment. Since this is the case I feel that the only way this unit can thrive after all of this malicious injustice is to allow the jobs to be posted on the OPM website and the board considers each applicant. Once the positions are filled that should be vacant. The people that are temporarily filling the positions step down, if they didn't get the job, and allow the new hire to fill the position. The jobs should have been advertised anyway so this should not come to a shock to any of the people that got the positions erroneously. The people that got the positions erroneously can apply for the positions once they are posted to the OPM website. If they qualify for the job and have the credentials to fill said job and the OPM Board decides that they are the best person for this position them so be it. But what I must speculate is that most of the people that are in these positions could not get them honestly so this is why they used the back door. I cannot say that I am not a slight bit bitter about the whole organization mishap. I think that this unit has done this same thing for so long they felt as if the unit belonged to them. Since they felt this way this made them feel as though they can do whatever they so desire because this is their house and they will allow whomever they want in it. They kept the people around that were Yes Men. They didn't want anyone around that would question their authority. If you were one to ask a question you were taken care of. If you were not fired you were sent to another unit only to find yourself not being in a promotable status. I dislike people that feel as though rules do not apply to them so this is why I decided to do research on this topic. I hope you enjoyed it.



References Global Security, 87th Division (Training Support) "Golden Acorn", , History of the 87th, 2000. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/87d.htm USA JOBS, Federal Hiring Process, How Federal Jobs Are Filled, 2007. http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/fhprocess.asp US Government Hiring Process and Federal Employment Applications, Federal Government Jobs, Government Employment Process, 1999. http://www.jobmonkey.com/governmentjobs/government-hiring.html Federal Government Security Clearances-Confidential, Secret and Top Secret Clearances, Understanding Government Security Clearance, 2000. http://www.jobmonkey.com/governmentjobs/gov-security-clearance.html From Hiring to Firing: Advice for Townships, The Termination Process, 2007. http://www.michigantownships.org/downloads/june07feat_1.pdf CRS Report for Congress, Military Technicians; The Issue of Mandatory Retirement for Non-Dual-Status Technicians, 1999. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/crs/RL30487_000328.pdf

Strength Summary by Unit

Total
UNIT
LOCATION
AUTH
HHC
Birmingham, AL
215
189th INF BDE
Fort Bragg, NC
556
158th INF BDE
Patrick AFB, FL
782
177th INF BDE
Camp Shelby, MS
789
188th INF BDE
Fort Stewart, GA
703
205th INF BDE
Camp Atterbury, IN
659
157th INF BDE
Fort Dix, NJ
820
174th INF BDE
Fort Stewart, GA
620
4th CAV
Fort Knox, KY
552
DIVISION TOTAL

5696
Strength Summary by Component
Total

AC
1402

USAR
3285

AGR
320

NG
580

CIVILIAN
109

TOTAL
5696

Divisions Unit Responsible For But Not Included In Totals
Total
1st Army AUG Det - Fort Gillem, GA
1068
MSBs- New York
345
Division East HQ-Fort Meade, MD
812
Total
2325