An individual augmentee is a United States military member attached to a unit (battalion or company) as a temporary duty assignment (TAD/TDY). Individual augmentees can be used to fill shortages or can be used when an individual with specialized knowledge or skill sets is required. As a result, individual augmentees can include members from an entirely different branch of service. The system was used extensively in the Iraq War, though with some criticism. By early 2007, there were an average of approximately 12,000 Navy personnel filling Army jobs in the United States, Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba and the Horn of Africa at any one time.[1]