(1) The Army components must be supported, resourced and modernized as one fully and completely integrated team.

(2) This team must function and fight together as a Total Army, with each component sharing in the duties and responsibilities of the Nation’s defense.

(3) Most importantly, the team must draw on the knowledge, expertise and wisdom of senior leaders from across the force to make the right decisions to prepare the Army to meet America’s future national security needs.

The Army’s current and planned programs will serve as a bridge to the future, a future that moves Total Army integration from coordinating three components to building one seamless 21st Century Force, a common culture based on common training, doc-trine, experience and shared knowledge. The Army is quickly mov­ing toward:

(1) A single, education, training, readiness, and deployment sys­tem for the Total Army.

(2) Personnel management systems that allow leaders and sol­diers to serve in multiple components during a career of service as a matter of course.

(3) Fully integrated command and control and digital systems that allow for thorough and complete integration of all component forces.

(4) Organizations that maximize the capabilities and unique strengths of each component.

The seamless Army of the future will be bound together by its multi-component force structures and integrated culture. This Total Army approach is embedded in OPMS XXI and reflected in each branch and functional area chapter of this pamphlet.