Those days are officially gone:
Gone are the days when Reservists committed one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer to soldiering duties, said Lt. Gen. Jack C. Stultz, chief of the U.S. Army Reserve. To respond to increased demands on manpower, he said, the Army Reserve has mobilized nearly 83 percent of its Soldiers. About 170,000 Soldiers have deployed since 9/11.
"With the advent of the war on terror, with Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, we have now become part of the operational force. ... We have maintained an ongoing commitment to this war," Lt. Gen. Stultz said.
Reserve units are expected to mobilize once every four to five years, the general said. In some cases, units will deploy and support U.S. operations for one year in theater before returning to non-military life.
Our reserves are now semi-active forces. In 1993, was hoping to have a civilian career. I had enlisted in 1987 because I felt it was my duty to defend my country if we were attacked. With the Cold War won, I didn't really feel like going to the Balkans or wherever in a peacetime mission just because we had too few active duty soldiers. Since I didn't get out of the IRR until 1995, even as we geared up to head into Bosnia, I knew that I was still at risk.
Our reservists know they will likely be sent off to serve for a year and still they enlist and reenlist. The wonder isn't that we must expend effort at meeting recruiting goals, but that we meet them at all with these terms of service.
