Posted on 06/29/2004 3:42:23 AM PDT by Max Combined
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army is planning an involuntary mobilization of thousands of reserve troops to maintain adequate force levels in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites), defense officials said on Monday.
The move -- involving the seldom-tapped Individual Ready Reserve -- represents the latest evidence of the strain being placed on the U.S. military, particularly the Army, by operations in those two countries.
Roughly 5,600 soldiers from the ready reserve will be notified of possible deployment this year, including some soldiers who will be notified within a month, said an Army official speaking on condition of anonymity.
A senior defense official said, "These individuals are being called back to fill specific shortages for specific jobs."
The official said the last time the Individual Ready Reserve, mainly made up of soldiers who have completed their active duty obligations, was mobilized in any significant numbers was during the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites).
Army officials are in the process of briefing members of Congress on the mobilization and plan a formal announcement on Wednesday.
The Army official said the mobilization "will be through the rest of the year. Some could be within a month."
"It would be an involuntary measure, an involuntary mobilization," the Army official said. "It's approximately 5,600."
"We're not calling up units, we're just using all the existing assets in theater and we're augmenting those assets with these individuals -- various occupational specialties, various different types of officers running the whole gamut," the Army official said.
The official said military police and civil affairs personnel were among the specialties involved.
The defense official said that while soldiers in the Individual Ready Reserve have served their voluntary obligation in the Army they still can be mobilized involuntarily for several years after returning to civilian life.
"Sometimes there's a misperception by some of the individuals ... that 'I've done my obligation, I've been in the Army, thank you very much, and I'm done'. But you're not done," the official said.
The Pentagon (news - web sites) had originally planned to reduce the number of American troops in Iraq to approximately 110,000 by now, but continuing security problems compelled officials to maintain a level of about 138,000 troops. Officials have said they planned to maintain that number through the end of 2005.
The United Sates has another 20,000 troops in Afghanistan.
This spring, the Pentagon delayed by about three months the scheduled departure from Iraq of roughly 20,000 U.S. troops.
Here's a little "draft" history for the youngsters. The 1950 draft for the Korean war was for 21 months, no strings attached. I happened to be sitting in the Senate gallery in March 1951 to watch them vote to extend my active service to 24 months, then tack on a reserve obligation of 3 years active or 5 years inactive reserve service. When I separated in 1953 I did not know of a single soul that chose the 3 years active reserve. I heard of a few who made the mistake of returning some questionnaire forms and got called for summer camp anyway. Congress passed the reserve add-on but failed to provide punishment for non-compliance. BTW I never received a discharge, so I guess I am "AWOL from the inactive reserve".
If you cant do your time..dont sign on the line
THAT RECRUITER LIED TO ME!!!!!
But not their total 8 year obligation. The article kind of explains this further on, but they had to throw this out by itself first to make it look worse. Media a$$holes.
In most areas it's not. Notice they said MPs and civil affairs (not sure if civil engineering/infrastructure falls under that). Basically they are having problems recruiting or retaining MPs and civil affairs people, or they want experience.
To paraphrase/quote myself from another thread on this : with MPs, experience would be preferable after what has happened in some of the prisons in regards to undisciplined troops. Obviously they want to get the infrastructure back up and running quickly, and experienced civil engineers/affairs troops would be a big asset in regards to that.
A friend mentioned a while back that he thought they ought to call back experienced MPs and the like, to ride herd on younger/newer troops & units that have had problems. His reasoning was that the administration couldn't afford any more prison abuse-type scandals between now and november.
There is hardly a guy in the miltary who understood this implication up until two years ago. They always mentioned it at the final out processing...and that was the first and last times anyone would hear about this possible situation. Out of the 5,500 they will attempt to call up...my bet is that they won't be able to locate 1,000 of them period. Alot of guys did their 20 years and don't see a reason to have come back. The rules are the rules...but this will start to make alot of folks already in the military thinking about a career in the military...and we will see a significant number leave by the end of 2006 unless they are halted at the front door. You'll have to double the pay to keep alot of folks interested in staying...or offer $100k bonuses to stay five years. I can just see numbers already...and the wives yelling at the husbands to just get out.
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