While these citizen-soldiers are on military duty, their employers hold their jobs for them and take up the slack, often meeting pay differentials and maintaining health care benefits for their deployed reservists. For some employers, simply holding the job until the servicemember returns is a struggle financially. 

Accustomed to the minimum obligation of one weekend a month and two weeks a year, guardmembers and reservists suddenly face more time apart from their families than they bargained for as the longer activations have become common. What they’re tasked to undertake on these deployments varies: Reserve forces can be activated for everything ranging from responding to catastrophic weather conditions to participating in combat. 

While the Department of Defense (DoD) remains committed to an all-volunteer force—our current combination of active duty and seven component forces (Air National Guard, Army National Guard, Air Force Reserve, Navy Reserve, Army Reserve, and Marine Corps Reserve, with the Coast Guard Reserve assigned to the Department of Homeland Security)—some new transformational initiatives are taking shape that will rebalance and improve the status quo. 

Strategist for Change

“The events of [Sept. 11] represented a fundamental shift in the use of the Guard and Reserve, compared to how we used them in the 1990s,” says Rear Adm. Thomas F. Hall, usn-Ret., assistant secretary of defense for Reserve Affairs since October 2002. The aviator retired in 1996 and became executive director of the Naval Reserve Association. He supervises DoD’s reserve component affairs and spoke with Military Officer in spring 2003. 

“Following the Cold War and the structure we had from the Gulf War on, we were positioned for [reserves] to be a sustaining force—we had lead time…for training,” Hall says. “We did not anticipate the events of [Sept. 11], with the enemy arriving unannounced at our doorstep. Now, we have 50,000 [guardmembers] and reservists on active duty every day for operations Enduring Freedom and Noble Eagle. We have mobilized over 286,000 reserve component members since [Sept. 11], and [more than] 223,000 are on duty today. 

“It appears that with the war on terrorism, we’ll continue to use significant amounts of Guard and Reserve. When we mobilize these forces twice or three times, the employers could begin to worry about it, and reservists wonder if they’ll be mobilized every year as well. The fundamental question is, do we have the balance right between the active duty forces and the reserves?”

Varied Challenges

The numerical balance between active duty and reserve forces is just one part of the equation that may need some work. Hall says other factors also must be considered. 

“We have a number of specialties that are resident in the Guard and Reserve that we use all the time,” Hall explains. “Civil affairs, force protection, and air traffic control are some examples. [Because] we are using them over and over, we must ask if we need to transfer some of those skills to the active duty side.”

Hall cites the civil affairs (CA) units, used for nation building, which have experienced eight mobilizations in eight years. “They are well-trained with very valuable skills,” Hall says. “Ninety-seven percent of our national CA capability is resident within the reserves. We must look at building more ca groups into the active duty forces. Are there some skills from the active duty side that should be transferred over to the reserves? And how can we do this within our end-strength levels without costing more money?”

Part of the proposed answer is to look at movement both ways: a flow of personnel from active duty to reserves, reserves to active duty. This raises questions about training similarities and how successfully equipment can be integrated from one force to the other, if required. The nearly 208,000 mobilized reservists must be able to meet combatant commanders’ requirements. The balancing initiatives will assure that those needs can continue to be met.

“Transformationally, we have not had a system in place that has promoted the initiatives we want,” Hall explains. “The current personnel systems are cumbersome; there is no free flow back and forth from active duty to reserves and back. Secretary [of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld has challenged the services to say, ‘It’s not business as usual.’ We cannot afford to use the old paradigms in this world we’re now in. We must be able to think creatively and produce forces that are more agile, dynamic, and responsive on a daily basis.” 

Alternating Commitments

Hall notes that Rumsfeld has clear expectations about avoiding burnout among both reservists and their civilian employers. “[He] does not want us to get to a circumstance where we stress the reserves so much that they will not want to serve, nor that employers will not want to employ them. Our job is to figure out a balance or flow that will use the wonderful resources of the Guard and Reserve forces but not overstress them.”

One example of how to achieve this free flow is for both active duty troops and reservists to be able to schedule periods of service that would allow for more, or less, military commitment. An active duty soldier might want to go to college full-time and be a reservist, then return to active duty status, a choice not currently available. Likewise, a reservist might need guaranteed active duty income for a time and then want to return to the reserves. Certain specialties, such as civil affairs, almost guarantee more deployments. Adjusting or balancing those high-use resident specialties could mitigate the stress currently on reservists, employers, and families.

Recruiting and retention could become a problem in the future. For FY 2003 first-quarter recruiting numbers, the reserves overall were 3 percent short. In 2002 they were 8 percent over. The 11 percentage point downward shift in two years is significant and might indicate a trend. 

The Coast Guard already has integrated its active duty and reserve forces, but Hall suggests that whether their experience will have ramifications for DoD’s balancing initiative remains to be seen. 

“The Coast Guard has done a wonderful job of integrating [its] forces on a daily basis,” Hall says. “While we have to be careful in thinking that one model may fit all, generally the better integrated you can become, the better off you are in terms of a system. However, each service must determine what best fits [its] individual needs.”

Working with Employers

Hall keeps three primary concerns in mind: the individual reservists, their families, and their employers. “We have in place programs to take care of families and provide health care,” Hall says. “Additionally, we must make sure that employers have proper advice and a way to communicate with us. We try to give at least 30 days’ notice before a deployment. 

“We have over 300 employers and companies that pay health care costs for deployed reservists as well as make up the pay differential. There are [more than] 44 governors who have signed statements supporting a pay differential for state employees who are mobilized. That’s a wonderful response.”

Also, DoD chartered the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) program to offer a mechanism for communication among employers, their Guard-Reserve employees, and DoD. The ESGR functions as a clearinghouse to educate everyone about the rights and responsibilities of all concerned with the reserve forces. 

“The ESGR is one of our real capstone programs,” Hall says. “We have 4,100 volunteers in 50 states, four territories, and in Europe. By and large, these volunteers in ESGR are former military. They help with employer-reservist questions like, ‘How long will Sergeant Smith be gone? What are my responsibilities to him?’ ESGR provides tools and information for individual state needs, and generally helps educate the reservist, employers, and the public.”

The Money Question

Currently, the Guard and Reserve comprise 45 percent of the total military force. In 2001, they received 8 percent of the DoD budget. In 2004, they will receive 8.2 percent. “It’s adequate to support our needs,” Hall observes. “The funds are subdivided among the individual service components for equipment and personnel as they see fit.” 

While most people agree that the current system may need some adjustment or balancing, the overall performance of American armed forces in Iraq indicates thus far that the system is sound. “I think we have achieved great compatibility,” says Hall. “It’s a testament to the vision of the people who have gone before us. We have had minimal problems with integration of the forces and have been able to get on with combat operations. 

“Our all-volunteer force is working and has proven to be filled with high-quality men and women,” Hall says. “What we have found in all of our surveys is that the No. 1 reason people join the Guard and Reserve is patriotism …When you see the faces of the young men and women serving in Iraq, it is the face of patriotism. We owe them, and those who have lost loved ones, a debt of gratitude.”