Army Reserve Chief: There really is no more Army Reserve, it's the Army

By Lee Russ

Thursday, March 01, 2007 at 12:47 PM

A little bit of truth from the head of the Army Reserve, speaking to a Government Executive breakfast:

For reservists, the old days of one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer are gone, says Army Reserve Chief Lt. Gen. Jack C. Stultz. "The Army Reserve exists to provide trained and ready soldiers and units when the nation calls," he told attendees at a Jan. 10 Government Executive breakfast. "There really is no more Army Reserve, it's the Army."

The reason this is so is also pretty interesting, and managed to elude me until I found this story:

Within hours of President George W. Bush's Jan. 10 announcement of an increase in the total troop numbers deployed to Iraq, the Pentagon reversed a long-standing policy that limited National Guard and reserve troops' time on active duty to one deployment in five years. The policy change means thousands of part-time citizen-soldiers who already have served yearlong tours in Iraq or Afghanistan now can be recalled for a second year's tour. ... The Army Reserve makes up only 20 percent of the total Army force, but it provides up to half the service's combat support units such as transportation, medical and civil affairs personnel. The average ages of reservists are 42 for officers and 31 for enlisted personnel. Under the base realignment and closure process, the Army Reserve is shutting down 176 facilities nationwide and is consolidating into 125 more modern Armed Forces Reserve Centers by 2011.

I just wonder how clear the Reserve plans to make this truth to potential recruits. Somehow I can't imagine a recruitment campaign based on, "Join the Reserve" and see just as much danger and carnage as the regular Army."

It's just a damn good thing that there's no draft, huh?