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reserves in other countries

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(from the San Antonia Express-News)

Military moving Reserve to front
By Sig Christenson
Express-News Staff Writer

The "weekend warrior" days of the National Guard and Reserve are over as America‘s shrinking armed forces become increasingly dependent upon part-time troops, a top Pentagon leader said Tuesday.

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs Charles L. Cragin told members of the Association of the United States Army that the Guard and Reserve are in the forefront of a fundamental transformation of the armed services, a force that sees little distinction between active-duty and part-time troops.

"While they may not serve full time, 365 days a year, they have full-time commitment to America and America‘s military," he said.

The visit by Cragin, a Navy enlistee, retired Naval Reserve captain and one-time Maine gubernatorial candidate, comes only a month after the Texas National Guard‘s 49th Armored Division returned home following an eight-month peacekeeping tour in Bosnia.

He pointed to the Austin-based 49th‘s tour of duty as a turning point in the way the Army, Army Reserve and National Guard interact.

Active-duty and part-time troops will now trade roles in leading the peacekeeping mission for the next three years, with the National Guard ‘s "Blue and Gray" 29th Infantry Division from Virginia and Maryland overseeing the multinational force starting in October 2001.

That‘s a far cry from the days of the Cold War, when part-timers were dubbed "weekend warriors," a term that wasn‘t always used fondly by those serving on active duty.

"Having been in the Guard, I had more respect for the Guard," said former Sgt. Major of the Army Leon Van Autreve, 80, a San Antonian who was a part-timer for two years before going to active duty.

"But they were not considered part of the family, and it‘s taken some time to develop an appreciation for the Guard and the Reserve."

Speaking to a crowd of about 300 at Fort Sam Houston, Cragin noted that it has been 27 years since the last American was drafted. The military, moreover, has 1 million fewer troops in the post-Cold War era and fewer Americans have served in uniform — just one in 10 today.

As the nation distances itself from the experience of military service, he said President Clinton is calling up 20,000 reservists to serve in Bosnia, Kosovo and Southwest Asia, with 20,000 more volunteering.

Without the Reserve and Guard, Cragin continued, it would be impossible to refuel military airplanes. While virtually all of those with civil affairs backgrounds are part-timers — 97 percent — many others specialize in psychological operations, public affairs, military police and medical fields.

"We‘re becoming more and more integrated just as the Air Force had become more integrated some time ago," said Maj. Gen. Robert L. Halverson, commander of the Texas Guard‘s Bosnia mission.

"I think part of it is necessity, but part of it is it was designed that way," he said when asked what prompted the change. "The force structure was designed to have the psychological operations, civil affairs. We‘re all designed to be in the Reserve component to start with."

Cragin predicted that differences among those in the armed forces likely would fade as "joint" or interservice operations become more common in the digitized military.

"I think you‘re seeing all of that, not only joint but also combined with our allies," he said in an interview after the speech to the AUSA. "We develop coalitions. This has been an evolutionary process."
 
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