Called To Serve
Weekend Warrior No More
By John D. Turner
I have had the pleasure of serving this nation
as a member of the armed forces for more than 20 years. Twelve of
those years were on active duty, the remainder in the reserve. I
hope to be able to serve for a total of thirty, and would continue
to serve past that if it were not prohibited by statute.
Let me take this opportunity to tell you a
little bit about reserve service, and your Air Force Reserve.
When I first came on active duty back in 1980,
reservists were viewed as "weekend warriors" who sat around, drank
coffee, and read the paper. They were there in case we got into a
large-scale war or something. If we on active duty thought about
them at all, it was in the context of part-time, wanna-be warriors.
Every once in a while, one would come in to do their two-week annual
tour, and we'd have to find something for them to do. As this was
perceived as more trouble than it was worth, many times they did
pretty much nothing; at least nothing of great value. I'm speaking
of IMA's here; Individual Mobilization Augmentees. IMAs are
reservists assigned to an active duty unit for the purpose of
augmenting end strength, or back filling an active duty position
when the active duty member is deployed.
The unit reserves were just as bad, typically
equipped with obsolete aircraft the active force had cast off when
they got the newest toys to fly. To all appearances, a second-rate
force of part-timers with hand-me-down equipment, to be used in time
of dire need.
Then came the force draw-down. And the Reserve
changed.
Today, the Air Force calls it the "Total
Force" -- the active duty force and the reserve, which comprises the
Unit Reserves, IMAs, and the Air National Guard. Today the Reserve
is a Major Air Command within the active force structure. And with
good reason; today's Air Force cannot function without its reserve
component. Without the reserves, the Air Force cannot meet its
peacetime requirements, much less its wartime missions.
We used to be called weekend warriors, known
for the "one weekend a month, two weeks per year". This remains the
minimum commitment, but the number of reservists who do only the
minimum is shrinking fast. A mere decade ago, the reserve forces
contributed slightly more than one million man-days towards active
force operations each year. Today, that number has risen to nearly
14 million man-days per year; this despite the fact that there are
20 percent fewer reservists now than ten years ago. We have had a
force draw down as well.
Today's Air Force Reserve flies the same
aircraft the active force flies. A large portion of the Air Force
transport and refueling mission is flown by reservists. The reserve
flies virtually every aircraft the active force flies, including the
B1 and B52. Some career fields are now almost entirely manned by
reservists. Many times, a reservist's civilian job and military job
coincide. Thus, many reserve military police are cops in civilian
life. Many Air Force Reserve pilots fly for airlines. There are now
even reserve pilots who are assigned to active duty flying units and
fly active duty aircraft. Reservists have been placed in command of
active duty units, and active duty officers have been placed in
command of reserve units. The two are becoming interchangeable.
The people in the reserve have changed as
well. Many who separated from active duty in the 1990's went into
the reserve. The result is a high-level of experience in the reserve
force, in many cases surpassing the experience levels on the active
duty side. Whereas having a reservist come in for a couple of weeks
was a hassle, 20 years ago, now that reservist is looked at as a
valuable asset in an armed force that is chronically undermanned
both in terms of experience, and sheer numbers of warm bodies. Two
weeks is a minimum; many units will take them for as long as they
can get them.
The mission has changed too. Instead of
spending their time training for their "wartime mission", they are
performing their wartime mission. The change has been abrupt, and
the bureaucracy has yet to completely catch up with the changes.
Even though they are still called "drill
periods", they are no longer drills. In my case, the work I do
during my "drills" is the same work I would be doing on active duty.
I am not "practicing", but rather making a real world contribution
to my unit's mission. If I were not there to do the work, at the
best it would eventually get done when someone had the extra time.
At worst, it wouldn't get done at all. The unit I am assigned to
uses its reservists to augment its every day mission. The "two
weekends a month and two weeks a year" add up to 36 working days -
about 8 calendar weeks of effort. This means that, depending on the
job, six reserve analysts putting in their minimum time can do about
the same amount of work as one full-time active duty analyst. My
directorate has over 60 reservists assigned. In the entire unit
there are more than 160. Most are technical analysts; some are
experts in very narrow, highly esoteric fields of study, and the
only people the Air Force has in those particular areas. If they
were not in the reserve, organic Air Force expertise in that arena
would be zero.
And that is just my assigned unit. I also
provide man-day support to two other units as well. In one
particular year I worked an additional 235 man-days in support of
these two units, including a period of active duty from 1 January
through 16 July. In another year I pulled an additional 107 man-days
above the minimum, for the most part, worked on weekends and
holidays. Figuring 20 - 22 working days per month, this equates to
around five calendar months of effort for a full-time active duty
person.
In fact, manning levels in the active force
are such that reservists can pretty much stay permanently on active
duty if they wish. There are plenty of units that need augmentation.
Of course, since most reservists have a regular job, this isn't all
that practical an idea. And truth be known, most don't put in as
many days as I do. However, deployments beyond the traditional two
weeks are becoming more and more commonplace. Reservists are being
routinely deployed around the world in relief efforts, anti-narcotic
operations, and peacekeeping roles. The Army, for example, had
almost completely turned over its responsibility for peacekeeping in
Bosnia to National Guard units on six-month rotations. The Air Force
followed suit, integrating reservists into its Aerospace
Expeditionary Forces, which rotate on similar overseas assignments.
These lengthier deployments, with no end in
sight, are causing problems for reservists, particularly with their
civilian employers. It's one thing to be gone for two weeks. It's
quite another to be gone for months, particularly if the reservist
works for a small business, or is self-employed. Federal law says
that the employer's have to let the reservist off, and can't
penalize them for their military service. Real life says otherwise
however; an employer who wants to get rid of someone can usually
find some excuse, or simply not hire a reservist in the first place.
Archaic regulations, dating back from the days
when the reserve was an "in case of emergency, break glass" sort of
force, rather than an integral part of the total force, also work to
the detriment of the reservist. For example, full medical benefits
for reservist's family members do not kick in unless the reservist
has been on duty for over 30 consecutive days. Likewise, a reservist
only gets leave (at a rate of 2.5 days per month) for each
consecutive 30 day period served. Thus, a reservist on duty for 29
days gets no leave time, and no family medical benefits. A reservist
on duty for 59 days would still only accrue 2.5 days of leave. Since
leave can only be taken in full-day increments, the half-day, in
most cases, is lost. Likewise, a reservist only gets full pay and
allowances if they are on duty 180 consecutive days or more. Since
most reservists are on tour for 179 days or less, most never get
paid the same as their active duty counterparts.
This means that as far as the military is
concerned, reservists are much cheaper to deploy than active duty
forces. The combination of less pay and an aggressive deployment
schedule has resulted in many people bailing out of the reserve as
well. Recruitment is also down. For the past three years, only the
Marine Corps Reserve has met their recruiting goals. The reserve has
performed well to this point, but we are burning our candle at both
ends and the strain is beginning to show.
So the next time you hear someone sneer at a
reservist or guardsman as being "inferior", a "weekend warrior", or
somehow "less" than his or her active duty counterpart, keep this in
mind. A large chunk of the military force that safeguards your
freedoms is comprised of Guard and Reserve. We serve in every
location overseas that the active force does. This is not the
reserve of yesteryear. We are fast approaching 50% of the entire Air
Force peacetime mission. The days of coffee and doughnuts are long
gone, and going reserve or guard certainly does not guarantee that
you will not be put in harm's way.
When the call to action comes, it will be
answered; by the active force, the guard, and the reserve. Together,
we are today's Air Force.
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