Army Reserves: Transforming While at War
Abstract
The Army Reserves are serving a Nation at War while managing a unique set of variables that impede the path to transformation. The Nation moved into a War time footing immediately following the 9/11 attacks in 2001. While the Army continues with transformation the Reserves battle complexities that impede transformation; the on-going ad hoc mobilizations the divesture of force structure and the application of Active models to Reserve formations if disjointedly applied will negatively impact retention. The crisis of 9/11 forged a policy to mobilize the Selected Reserve in ad hoc teams in support of the Global War on Terrorism. As the force flow for Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom continued so did the ad hoc unit deployments; this committed the reserves to a cross-leveling plan that degraded nearly every assigned unit and created management by individuals vice units. The Army acknowledged the "Total Force" policies of the 1980's created the hollow force structure that prevents Selected Reserve units from full manning. A 2002 initiative approved the divesture of the hollow portion of the Selected Reserve force to improve unit personnel readiness; however the divesture process will take until 2011. While the Army Reserves wait to divest structure transformation planning guidance has been issued regardless of the current state. As such the basic building block for transformation models is a unit not an individual. The implementation of the models without addressing the impacts of mobilization and force structure will affect retention and viability of Reserves. This project seeks to provide a framework that improves the capacity of the reserves to meet the mobilization mission while transforming by reassigning mobilizing units increasing volunteerism and restructuring for resource allocation. This initiative if implemented would demonstrate the Army's commitment to the Reserves and reestablish unit based values.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 18, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA432407
Entities
People
- Jonathan G. Ives
Organizations
- United States Army War College