Advance Warning and Risk Evaluator (AWARE): Background, Preliminary Findings, and Way Ahead

Abstract : Army commanders have limited visibility into their Soldiers patterns of negative and positive behaviors. This affects readiness, performance, well-being, career progression, security, and good order and discipline. If commanders cannot identify the most effective response, some of these issues may deteriorate toward suicide, high risk behaviors, and insider threat. Limited visibility may also cause Soldiers with excellent potential to be overlooked, not retained, or not developed to their full potential. This complex challenge may occur in part because key information, stored in local records, does not transfer with Soldiers when they change units. Improving commander access to counseling statements should help gaining commanders identify and manage Soldiers who may pose threats or have special potential for success in the Army. Paper counseling statements could be digitized and stored in a centralized repository for the Commander s Dashboard. This would help commanders track individuals of concern, manage risk, identify promising Soldiers, and make effective personnel decisions that increase protection, mitigate insider threat, build and sustain a high-quality force, and hold subordinate leaders accountable for Soldier development. This could also be a partial response to recommendation 2.9 from the Fort Hood review. Access to local records would reflect a significant change in command philosophy and Army operations. Additional empirical support is needed to support these changes.