The Department of Defense (DoD) employs more than three million people. Nearly half of its personnel, 1.44 million, are active duty military. About 870,000 Reservists, composed of 410,000 Selected Reservists and 460,000 National Guard personnel, add to the active duty force. Civilian personnel make up the remaining workforce, numbering about 730,000. These three million employees are supported by an array of defense contractors providing a wide variety of goods and services to the Department. Moreover, the Department spends more than half of its $270 billion budget on pay and allowances alone. With a workforce this large, varied, diverse, and important, it is not surprising that its management is a uniquely challenging undertaking. The human resource challenges facing DoD have changed rapidly over the last decade as a result of many factors. A robust economy, civilian sector competition for employees to fill high-technology positions, declining American public interest in public service, major changes in the Department's missions and operational tempo, and a significant downsizing of the Department's workforce are a few examples. Reducing the size of the overall workforce by more than a million personnel, from a high in 1987 of 4.1 million, has left in place a very different force distribution - in age, education, and skill.

The Defense Science Board Summer Study on the Transition to and from Hostilities was formed in early 2004 (the terms of reference are contained in Appendix A) and culminated in the production of a final report and summary briefing in August of 2004. The DSB Task Force on Strategic Communication conducted its deliberations within the overall Summer Study schedule and revisited a topic that was addressed in October 2001.1 Task Force members and Government advisors are identified in Appendix B. The current Strategic Communication Task Force re-examined the purposes of strategic communication and the salience of recommendations in the earlier study. It then considered the following questions: (1) What are the consequences of changes in the strategic communication environment? (2) What Presidential direction and strategic communication means are required? (3) What should be done about public diplomacy and open military information operations? The Task Force met with representatives from the National Security Council (NSC), White House Office of Global Communications, Department of State (DOS), Department of Defense (DOD), Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), and the private sector (the schedule of meetings, briefings and discussions is contained in Appendix C). Based on extensive interaction with a broad range of sectors in the government, commercial, and academic worlds, as well as a series of highly interactive internal debates, we have reached the following conclusions and recommendations.

The Commission was chartered by Congress to assess the reserve component of the U.S. military and to recommend changes to ensure that the National Guard and other reserve components are organized, trained, equipped, compensated, and supported to best meet the needs of U.S. nat. security. Contents: Creating a Sustainable Operational Reserve; Enhancing the DoD¿s Role in the Homeland; Creating a Continuum of Service: Personnel Mgmt. for an Integrated Total Force; Developing a Ready, Capable, and Available Operational Reserve; Supporting Service Members, Families, and Employers; Reforming the Organizations and Institutions That Support an Operational Reserve; and Commission for the Total Operational Force. Illus.

The USAir Force human capital management (HCM) system is not easily defined or mapped. It affects virtually every part of the Air Force because workforce policies, procedures, and processes impact all offices and organizations that include Airmen and responsibilities and relationships change regularly. To ensure the readiness of Airmen to fulfill the mission of the Air Force, strategic approaches are developed and issued through guidance and actions of the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel and Services and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. Strengthening US Air Force Human Capital Management assesses and strengthens the various U.S. Air Force initiatives and programs working to improve person-job match and human capital management in coordinated support of optimal mission capability. This report considers the opportunities and challenges associated with related interests and needs across the USAF HCM system as a whole, and makes recommendations to inform improvements to USAF personnel selection and classification and other critical system components across career trajectories. Strengthening US Air Force Human Capital Management offers the Air Force a strategic approach, across a connected HCM system, to develop 21st century human capital capabilities essential for the success of 21st century Airmen.