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In the past two decades, the United States has deployed a high number of U.S. federal government civilians to high-threat environments. Past findings point to a likely need for civilian post-deployment reintegration support. However, until now, a descriptive account of such support has been lacking. In this report, the authors present assessments of federal agencies' practices to reintegrate civilians following a deployment to high-threat areas.

As the largest provider of government civilians to support U.S. military operations, the Army stands to benefit to a great extent from a more robust process for forecasting future demand for its civilian workforce. The modeling process described in this report supports the Army and other force providers in aligning their available expeditionary civilian workforces with the projected future demand for these capabilities.

Changes in employment stability, family structure, and economic pressures have created challenges for the U.S. military reserve component (RC). It is necessary to modify assumptions about Reserve duty to improve RC member recruitment, performance, development, and retention. The authors provide recommendations and analysis that will be applicable in developing and administering programs to facilitate access to civilian human capital.

Contractors provide supplies and perform other functions in theaters of conflict. This comprehensive review of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) operational contract support (OCS) planning and integration workforce shows that some doctrinally mandated tasks are not being performed by DoD personnel and that the force receives limited training in OCS, recommending several options to address these shortfalls.

RAND conducted an end-to-end review and analysis of Department of Defense civilian deployment to inform policy and practice for using deployable civilians to meet mission needs ten to 20 years into the future.