Rounder said:
I disagree... I myself, and probably 60 percent of reservists would love to go overseas more often... The military has to start utilizing the reserves as the American's do.
Well, let's talk about that. US Reservists here in Afghanistan represent an amazingly large percentage of the Coalition force, particularly in CSS, Cbt Sp such as MP and Engrs, as well as the USAF presence. However, they are NOT all (or even mostly...) here as volunteers looking for a challenging and interesting experience. Most were ordered to go when their units were called up (the reverse of job protection is compulsory Reserve duty when they need you...) and had to leave jobs, families and schools regardless of the impact. A number (and I have spoken to a couple) thought that they had actually completed their Reserve service and were less than impressed to be called up. The stress on the US Reserve system (especially ARNG and USAR) is intense and shows little sign of slackening. But,the US can do this precisely because if they call up a battalion of ARNG or USAR or whatever, the WHOLE unit is liable to go if required.
We, on the other hand, rely on a completely voluntary Res system, with no compulsory job protection. We cannot force Res soldiers to train during the year, so we can maintain only limited skill levels (although IMHO these are probably superior, skill for skill, to the average USARNG unit). We have no practical means of guaranteeing that (for example) if we put a complete TOE Arty battery into the Res, we could snap our fingers and call it up for overseas duty. We in the Regular Army would love to be able to use more Reservists. I can tell you (
ad nauseam.....) that the opportunities for Res soldiers to deploy today are 100% beyond where they were when I was a Res soldier 1974-82.
Now-to your specific comments:
I completely agree with you. I would say the vast majority of my unit would jump at the chance to go overseas, anywhere they can. Those that can't are generally students or persons who do not want to give up their civvy job. But the rest of us would be all over a tour
Great. When the spots are there, you can be pretty sure the Army will come looking. Watch the CFTPO screen at your unit!
Maybe the issue is there isn't the money in the system to keep putting guys through 3 months work up training....but the regs do workup for their tours too so that doesn't really add up.
No-not really. The issue is that right now we have only two "major" Army missions outside the country. Bosnia is now almost 100% Res (
dglad are you out there...come in dglad.). Here in ATHENA we have a number of Res soldiers, incl (I'm proud to say) a formed pl from the CBG I belong to. If there were more positions that we could give to Res, we would, but some skill sets such as Coyote,etc are just not in the Army Res.
Why can't they start using CRICs in afghanistan?
Because up until now the feeling has been that the force protection threat here required the higher levels of training found in most RegF rifle coys. The situation in Bosnia permitted CRICS and they did a fine job. I can see the situation here developing the same way if all goes wel. At any event IMHO we could use qualified Res in almost any individual job here. ETT comes to mind: the US ETTs are almost all USARNG.
Or use reg force battalions as a sort of QRF that can go somewhat rapidly, IE Haiti, and then allow a predominantly reserve force to inherit the op after the initial deployment, allowing for less strain on the reg force system?
Sort of like we've done in Bosnia? If the situation permits, and the qualified troops are available, why not?
I've heard about guys who have hardly seen home in the past 2 yrs because its so busy, but then there are tonnes of guys just sitting around wishing they could go. Seems illogical.
The complaints about being deployed don't generally come from the younger Regular Cbt A soldiers: this is what they joined the Regular Army for. It tends to get worse as they get older and get familiies and have a few more ops under the belt. Unfortunately (at least at the present time, anyway...) our Army Res is not fully capable of replacing these particular individuals.
I am very confident that once we get back into larger ops (or more ops...) in the not too distant future, the demand for Res soldiers will go up. In the meantime, keep parading and training, keep fit, and be patient. I served eight years as a Res without any tour at all. Good luck to you!! Cheers.
