So it makes sense to merge all the pay systems to keep track of soldiers as they move from reserve to active to reserve status:
The Army is planning to launch an online pay and personnel system in October that will bring all three components into a single database.
The Army Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System, or DIMHRS, represents the Army’s first efforts to pull the reserves and active Army under one pay system, the program’s director, Army Col. Patrick Devine, told Stripes on Tuesday.
The system, the result of a Defense Department mandate to streamline all the service’s record-keeping capabilities, is also the first time the Army has merged payroll and personnel data, Devine said.
Once DIMHRS (pronounced “dimers”) goes online Oct. 1, 2008, personnel actions will automatically trigger associated pay events, starting the cash flowing to the soldier’s paycheck without delay, Devine said.
For example, when a soldier is mobilized to deploy to a designated combat zone, DIMHRS will automatically update the payroll section of the soldier’s records, so he starts receiving entitlements such as Hazardous Duty Incentive Pay.
While it is good that the structure is adapting to reality, I wonder if the compensation system as a whole will be sufficient to draw recruits to what is now a semi-active force rather than a strategic reserve called up only in national emergencies.
This article addresses a lot of the issues involved with this new role. I would like to correct one part, however. The article states that Guardsmen can expect to be off four years and deployed one year. Often, this is shown as a "5:1" deployment. I think many confuse this with one out of five years--or four years off and one year on. Actually, this is based on the 6-year National Guard term of enlistment. So a Guard combat brigade could expect to have 5 years off preparing for 1 year of potential deployment, hence 5:1. It is a ratio and not a fraction.
Regardless, we've done well so far in recruiting for what is effectively a semi-regular force with reserve pay incentives. God bless our reservists who sign up under these terms, but they deserve better for what they are called to do.
