III Corps - "Counterattack Corps" / America's Hammer
The mission of II Corps is to, when directed, deploy to a theater of operations, conduct military operations and redeploy. As the Nation's Counteroffensive Force, III Corps trains, mobilizes, deploys, and sustains ready forces; on order, conducts decisive full-spectrum joint or combined operations.
Training for counteroffensive combat operations are III Corps' main effort. The Counteroffensive Force is designed to meet current needs in a dangerous and unstable world. It is offensive in nature and a departure from the old Cold War strategy, which was defensive in nature. Everything III Corps does is designed to support our preparations to fight and win. It is imperative that III Corps' war-winning readiness and deployability remain high. Actual threats and the contemporary operating environment (COE) threat must be replicated in training.
III Corps has unique challenges. Its headquarters is at Fort Hood, Texas; its aviation brigade is in Korea; and its corps artillery is at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. This distance between key elements, combined with high personnel turnover, intensifies the need for rigorous training during the few times it is able to bring the entire team together.
Operating Tempo (OPTEMPO) objectives are not just as a measure of training readiness. The objective training standard is the Combined Arms Training Strategy (CATS) standard of 800 miles per year and 14.5 hours per airframe per month or the equivalent OPTEMPO standard for other unit. All miles executed at the National Training Center (NTC) and during Contingency Operations (CONOPS) are in excess of that standard.
All III Corps units must be prepared on short notice to deploy to a theater of operations and conduct military operations in support of Commander in Chief missions. Additionally, there are emerging requirements to be prepared to conduct operational missions in the Continental United States (CONUS). Emphasis is placed on the execution of decisive offensive counter-attack operations. In general, commanders can achieve appropriate levels of force protection, deployment readiness, and training competency in a noncompetitive environment. However; when conflicts arise, commanders prioritize as follows: Force Protection, followed by METL-based training.
The III Corps was identified by FORSCOM as the primary provider of forces in support of Operation Noble Eagle and Homeland Security. As such, FORSCOM tasked III Corps to provide quick reaction forces (QRFs) and ready reaction forces (RRFs) to respond rapidly to a crisis within designated Federal Emergency Agency regions. Additionally, III Corps provided the majority of the FORSCOM requirements for forces in support of Joint Task Force Civil Support and Consequence Management (JTF-CS/JTF-CM). These forces are capable of responding anywhere in CONUS to a domestic chemical, biological, radiological, explosive (CBRNE) incident.
The III Corps is the Corps Force Provider for SFOR 14-15 and KFOR 5A-5B rotations. As such, III Corps is responsible for the complete and continuous support of the forces keeping the peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. The III Corps' responsibilities begin 18-24 months before forces deploy and include all aspects associated with the sourcing, training, certification, validation, for these forces.
III Corps strives to maintain air and ground equipment to the Army's 10/20 standards at all levels. In general, ground combat systems must be maintained at a 90 percent Operational Readiness (OR) rate, Utility Helicopter UH-60 are at 75 percent OR, and air combat systems at a 70 percent OR rate. Conducting quality maintenance on tactical equipment enhances and facilitates training and warfighting and training are inseparable.
III Corps must do this within the framework of Department of the Army (DA) and FORSCOM guidance that dictates that III Corps become the standard bearer of the Army's Legacy Force. The Army is investing in industry and technologies to create the objective force, to transform the Army from its current Cold War organization and equipment into a force that better utilizes its full-spectrum capabilities in a more strategically deployable force. The Army will continue to modernize and upgrade the legacy forces -- III Corps, the counterattack corps, and XVIII Airborne Corps, the contingency corps -- as a hedge to fight wars.
For the next 15 to 20 years, the existing force will represent the bulwark of the land forces of the United States, and they must be maintained in sufficient readiness and capability to perform all potential missions. The nucleus of this force will be the Counterattack Corps, which is based upon the Army's III Corps in Fort Hood, Texas. In balancing its resources, the Army decided that this Corps will receive the highest priority for recapitalization and modernization efforts in order to ensure its peak readiness and capability for warfighting missions. As a result, it will receive modernized systems such as the M1A2 System Enhancement Program (SEP) Abrams tank, the M2A3 Bradley, Crusader, as well as other new or upgraded systems in a variety of areas. III Corps consists of both Active and Reserve Components, all of which will be modernized to ensure that the Counterattack Corps is ready for any and all missions.
The Army transformation strategy requires a capable recapitalized legacy force focused on a digitized heavy counterattack corps. The current Army plan is to limit recapitalization to the counterattack corps. Recapitalization does not modernize the force; it is broken into two separate programs (rebuild and selective upgrade). Rebuild restores systems to a like-new condition in appearance, performance, and life expectancy. Selected upgrade rebuilds the systems and also inserts new technology to improve reliability and maintainability. Recapitalization reduces the Army's near-term operational risk by extending the service life of existing warfighting systems thru an aggressive program. The essential point here is that in order to generate the investment capital required to accelerate transformation to the revolutionary Objective Force, the Army has skipped a generation of procurement.
The III Corps is fully engaged in transformation and is the first fighting force of its size equipped with a complete suite of interoperable, automated Command, Control, Communications, Computer, and Intelligence systems. These systems lay the foundation for Network Centric Warfare and dominance of the information sphere. Keeping III Corps and other Legacy Forces the best in the world is a vital part of Transformation. The fielding of modernized and recapitalized systems is focused on the counterattack corps headquartered at Fort Hood. The Army has already begun fielding enhanced Battle Command Systems within III Corps. Combat platforms like the M1A2 System Enhanced Program (SEP), the M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle and AH-64D Apache attack helicopter are integrated into the Army Battle Command System. Taken together, these systems represent a dramatic capability to conduct decisive combat, today and in the future.. Along with information and materiel system fielding, III Corps units continue to reorganize under new Modified Table of Organization and Equipment while inculcating updated doctrine tactical techniques and procedures into formations.
Under a new concept called "corps packaging," all of the National Guard's eight combat divisions and 15 enhanced separate brigades will be matched with active-component divisions at the corps level. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric K. Shinseki announced this expansion of teaming between active and Guard divisions 14 September 2000 in a speech to the National Guard Association annual conference in Atlantic City, NJ. Under III Corps at Fort Hood, Texas, the 7th Infantry Division's headquarters at Fort Carson, Colo., would align with the Guard's 39th Infantry Brigade in Arkansas, the 41st Infantry Brigade in Oregon, the 45th Infantry Brigade in Oklahoma and the 155th Armored Brigade in Mississippi. The 49th Armored Division remains paired with the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood; Minnesota's 34th Infantry Division with the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood; and Indiana's 38th Infantry Division with Fort Carson, Colo.
Approximately 160 soldiers from two 13th Corps Support Command units -- the 546th Area Support Medical Company and the 68th Engineer Company returned to Fort Hood July 29, 2003. The 546th Area Support Medical Company deployed on Feb. 14 and the 68th Engineer Company deployed on March 2 for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
