[91B]

I'm not sure about your numbers. In the NCNG over 6,000 (of about 11,000) soldiers have been mobilized. At least one NCNG unit, the 211th MP company got hit for both Afghanistan and Iraq and I have heard other units, from other states, have had the same experience. They are telling us that the average reservist can expect a mobilization about every 5 years. I think that many of those who are deployed now will opt not to take those odds.

[68skylark]

I agree that there have been a lot of call-ups. But the vast majority, as fas as I've seen, have been for stateside duty like guarding arifields and other relatively "non combat" roles. The numbers of reservists in Iraq for OIF I was around 15,000 to 20,000 I think, and OIF II will have around 30,000 to 35,000. Add in a few more for Afghanistan, and we're only talking about 10% to 20% of our total reserve force.

Sure, there are MP units that have been heavily deployed. I know of some avaiation maintenance units that have been even more heavily used than MP's. Those mechanics and MP's could be expensive to replace, and that's a concern. But their numbers are pretty small compared to the overall force -- even if retention went down to 0% (which it won't), our overall reserve retention rate won't go down much.

A phrase like "mass exodus" is badly misplaced -- it's just dumb newspaper hype, in my opinion. (Remember, rates went up for units activated to Desert Storm, and recent reserve recruiting goals have been met. So I honestly think there is no big time crisis on the horizon -- at worst we do have some concerns about a few key MOS's, and there are way to handle these concerns.)

Let me know if you disagree. I don't want to paint a rosy picture if the real picture is gloomy.

[Vermont Lt]

By the way, thanks for taking the heat for the rest of us. We appreciate it. I hope you get home soon.

Say "hey" to any Norwich guys you run into.