DATE: Monday, March 24, 1997                TAG: 9703240038

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  123 lines

RESERVISTS GET RESPONSIBILITY IN NORFOLK EFFORT AIMS TO SAVE MONEY, FILL HOLES AND KEEP PART-TIMERS PRIMED.

At U.S. Atlantic Command Headquarters here - perhaps the busiest military organization in the world - a real estate developer from Pennsylvania serves as chief of staff.

Rear Adm. Timothy O. Fanning, a Navy reservist from West Chester, Pa., takes a $12 room at the Navy Lodge three or four nights a week so that he can help supervise 1.3 million of the nation's military personnel.

At other times he works from home, his laptop computer dialed into ACOM's toll-free telephone line, his work coded to protect the secret information he handles.

Fanning serves not only as the chief operating officer for ACOM's commander in chief - Marine Corps Gen. John J. Sheehan - but also as the personification of a major shift in the nation's military thinking.

His command is a leading player in a push to fully integrate reservists with active-duty soldiers and sailors, an effort that promises to thrust ``weekend warriors'' into the everyday workings of America's military machinery.

Ultimately, the effort may save scads of money, fill personnel holes left by the military drawdown, and better prepare reserve forces for service in national emergencies.

``We are a model, basically, for the defense industry of the future,'' Fanning said.

Where top-ranking reserve officers once performed mundane administrative duties with their field units - drilling one weekend a month, plus serving two weeks on active duty annually - those assigned to ACOM today are coming to work every day of the week, and shouldering real-world responsibilities.

Only their I.D. cards - pink, rather than green - separate them from their active-duty counterparts. And because they take a hands-on role in ACOM's regular business, the command winds up with a truly workable backup.

Thus a CIA official, Larry L. Poe, is a naval reserve rear admiral who fills in for Air Force Brig. Gen. James A. Yaeger, an active-duty officer on ACOM's staff who serves as director of intelligence.

Reserve Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Albert C. Harvey, who in civilian life is a senior partner in a Memphis, Tenn., law firm, sits in for the operations directorate, and helps brainstorm ACOM's exercises.

Brig. Gen. Grant R. Mulder, an Air Force reservist, works directly with Brig. Gen. Robert L. Floyd II, an active-duty Army officer and ACOM's director of logistics. Mulder is a pilot for Delta Airlines in civilian life.

Just three years ago there were 85 reservists attached to the command to assist its 440-member, active-duty staff. Today there are more than 450 reservists assigned, and within a year that number will grow to about 600.

This is a new breed of cat,'' said Marine Corps Reserve Col. Andrew ``Drew'' B. Davis, commanding officer of ACOM's reserve unit.

``Once upon a time, in the '70s and '80s, reservists on drill weekends went into a drill center and trained themselves for the eventuality that one day they may be called upon to support national policy and go to work.

``All of the time they spent training themselves was done segregated from the active component to a large degree.''

Davis, like his fellow reservists, holds his ACOM post on top of his civilian duties: He is associate director of the Newspaper Management Center at Northwestern University, a finishing school for senior executives in the news media.

That old system, Davis said, worked pretty well when tested - particularly when Desert Storm pulled a legion of reservists into action. But afterward, with the drawdown in military forces, wide holes started to appear in the ranks.

``Empty desks started appearing,'' Davis said, ``but the work didn't diminish.''

So instead of training at National Guard or Army Reserve armories, performing purely administrative duties that rarely take advantage of their civilian skills, the reservists now give Sheehan 150 hours of work a year, plus at least two weeks of full-time work, doing real world things, Davis said.

``The active guys can see relief is on the way,'' he said.

When he reported to the command and appointed its chief of staff, Fanning was given the added task of setting up a steering committee to advise him on reserve matters.

That decision, Fanning said, was Sheehan's way of saying he wanted the reserve component to meld into ACOM's everyday functions, ``a statement that they were absolutely serious about integrating reserves in this command.''

For years, reservists had pushed for a more complete integration, but they'd tried to do it from the bottom up. It didn't work well, Fanning said: ``I, like them, believed integration alone takes place at the top of the organization. Not at the bottom.''

Forming Davis's reserve unit was one of the first recommendations of Fanning's steering committee. There never had been a true reserve unit to augment such a command as ACOM.

Now, instead of an ad hoc reserve force, ACOM will be able to better use its reserve components as parts of the whole of its resources.

``I'm telling you when we did Desert Storm, we sent reservists. But their command elements had never worked with the other command elements. We had a Naval Reserve captain and he headed up the port group. But he had never worked with any command. They just said we need a port security group and all of a sudden he went. Their communications didn't work together.''

Establishing the unit didn't finish the task. Fanning also had to be certain that reserve flag officers were up to their new roles.

Few had formal joint service training. In fact, over a decade only seven had attended the Capstone course, considered the peak of joint training opportunities. Nobody could give him a reason for not offering it to reservists.

``We went for it,'' he said.

This year, 22 reserve flag officers will attend Capstone, and from now on, one in five of those attending will be reservists.

There will be other opportunities for reserve officers to make their marks, too, in 35 newly authorized jobs at unified commands around the world.

``We are going to transfer those people out of administrative billets and into operational billets where they can fill in,'' Fanning said. ``We have, for the first time, a full-balanced approach of all the services.''

Army Col. H. Allen Chadwick, chief of staff of ACOM's Joint Reserve Unit, said the reservists attending weekend drills throughout the country are beginning to notice.

``Our phones are ringing off the hook,'' he said. ``This is the place they want to be. This is the center for reserve integration.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot

Timothy O. Fanning, a real estate developer in West Chester, Pa., is

a rear admiral in the Navy reserve. He is with the U.S. Atlantic

Command in Norfolk, which is integrating reservists and active-duty

military personnel. KEYWORDS: MILITARY RESERVES

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