Search and rescue: Pentagon seeks joint doctrine, training for personnel recovery.

• Author: Tiron, Roxana

Despite accounting for each and every missing soldier in the Iraq war--a first in U.S. military history--the combat search and rescue community is stretched thin and grappling with gaps ranging from policy to training.

Officials said that success is a double-edged sword. Gaining support for additional resources and new ways of operating can be difficult given the performance in recent conflicts.

"The personnel recovery community is in an interesting position--the job is getting done. What more can you ask for?" said Air Force Lt. Gen. Norton Schwartz, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

While personnel recovery is associated with the Air Force and its special operations forces, each military service has its own rescue elements and its own way of doing things. And for most, personnel recovery is an additional duty.

Now, military commanders are moving to make personnel recovery operations more interoperable, through a greater emphasis on joint training and new technology. But a number of high-level officers agree that there still is a long way to go.

"Personnel recovery" is the umbrella term for the aggregation of military, civil and political operations to obtain the release or recovery of those captured, missing or isolated from uncertain or hostile environments and denied areas. Personnel recovery includes a vast array of operations such as theater search and rescue (SAR); combat search and rescue (CSAR); survival, evasion, resistance and escape (SERE), and the coordination of negotiated as well as forcible recovery options.

What the military leadership should be seeking is a joint, dedicated personnel recovery force, Schwartz said. "Interoperability is as much a result of people on the ground making it happen as much as it is a result of adequate planning," he said at a recent National Defense Industrial Association personnel recovery conference. "We need a dedicated versus dual-use personnel recovery force."

Current dedicated recovery forces are stretched thin by supporting ongoing combat operations, he said. Most of these consist of special operations forces. "They can't afford to respond to requirements inefficiently," he said. "With the war on terrorism, those forces are in even higher demand for their primary combat tasks."

The war in Iraq--where insurgent organizations recognize the value of exploiting kidnappings and captures for political gain--has challenged the notion of personnel recovery. Added to the mix are civilians from the United States and allies (see related stories p. 38; p. 39) who are increasingly being taken hostage. The Defense Department faces the challenge of changing its policies to encompass...