Biden warms up the Individual Ready Reserve

[Ivanhoe]

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/07/13/ordering-the-selected-reserve-and-certain-members-of-the-individual-ready-reserve-of-the-armed-forces-to-active-duty/

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... I hereby authorize the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy, under their respective jurisdictions, to order to active duty any units, and any individual members not assigned to a unit organized to serve as a unit of the Selected Reserve, or any member in the Individual Ready Reserve mobilization category and designated as essential under regulations prescribed by the Secretary concerned, not to exceed 3,000 total members at any one time, of whom not more than 450 may be members of the Individual Ready Reserve, as they deem necessary, and to terminate the service of those units and members ordered to active duty.

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/military-individual-ready-reserve-biden-executive-order/

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In essence, the executive order places caps on the types of reserve component forces that could deploy to Europe if needed: Up to 3,000 troops, of which no more than 450 can come from the Individual Ready Reserve, Ryder said.

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The executive order derives its authority in part from Title 10 of the U.S. Code — the compilation of federal statutes —  which, if fully implemented, authorizes up to 200,000 reservists to be mobilized at any one time, of which up to 30,000 can be from the Individual Ready Reserve.

“The President’s executive order; however, limits the call up to 3,000 Selected Reserve of whom no more than 450 may be from the IRR,” Ryder said. “That’s simply a proportional percentage of the statute.  There isn’t an intent to necessarily use that authority, rather it simply provides force management flexibility to sustain current operations.”

The Army and Air Force have identified several types of billets that the executive order gives them the authority to fill, including contracting, military police, dental support, human resources, finance, and possibly replacement combat forces, Ryder said.

 

This latter paragraph is amusing, as the other day I stumbled across a news article which talked about DOD shedding clinicians from Defense Health Agency. 

My various acquaintances in active duty sometimes talk about how Human Resources Command is divorced from reality, leading to regional shortages in certain MOSes. I'm guessing they wargamed a substantial deployment to northern/eastern Europe and some schlep built an Excel spreadsheet showing what staffing by MOS is needed vs who's in inventory and deployable.

 

[BansheeOne]

I looked into the various reserve categories and found this slightly amusing point on Wiki:

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Until the War on Terror, members of the Individual Ready Reserve had not been called up since Operation Desert Shield.[8] A major difficulty in activating the IRR stems from the fact that many of its members, typically those from the junior enlisted ranks, are unaware that they are even in the military. This results from such members typically being informed that they are "discharged" upon release from active duty when in fact they have been transferred to the inactive reserves. To solve this situation, many military separation transition courses now spend additional time explaining the nature of the inactive reserve. As of 2005, the military also began to enact "IRR Musters" which were once a year occurrences where an IRR member would be required to report to a military base, confirm their personal and contact information, and sign acknowledgement paperwork that they were members of the IRR.

Also from the same Wiki entry:

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[...]

As of March 2009, the US Army had recalled 26,954 ready reservists since September 11, 2001. Of those, 10,592 requested exemptions of which 6,352 were granted.[13]

On 16 October 2014, President Obama ordered the activation of the IRR in support of Operation United Assistance.[14]

History of activations and authorized since COVID-19 Pandemic

On 27 March 2020, President Trump authorized the Secretary of Defense & the Secretary of Homeland Security to order up to 1,000,000 IRR members to active duty.[15]

On 13 July 2023, President Biden authorized the Secretary of Defense & the Secretary of Homeland Security to ordered up to 450 IRR members to Active Duty in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve.[16]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_Ready_Reserve

[Ivanhoe]

Yeah, it gets complicated. One time I talked to a USAF MAJ. He was long retired, he looked like he was in late 50s but maybe he was early 50s. His MOS was photo recon analysis, he got recalled maybe 2003 or 2004 IIRC. 

Long ago when I was in the process of applying for a GS position in *.mil, it asked about my draft registration status. I happened to have the forms from when I registered at age 18. It turns out I was supposed to send my numerous address changes to Selective Service. 

I'm not worried now, the current SecArmy doesn't want children of veterans, and my father was a WWII Pacific Fleet veteran. 

 

[DKTanker]

What was fun is that in the months following Carter's decree of reestablishing the registration for selective service, a number of us young active duty soldiers received letters that we had to immediately register or else face the wrath.  I don't recall the specifics of the wrath, but as I was facing yet another long hot summer at Ft. Hood, I didn't feel threatened by a piece of paper.

[ex2cav]

 I was honorably discharged in the early 90's. About a year later I got a notice to show at a recruiting station pursuant to my being in the IRR. I showed and the NCO tried to get me to enlist in the active reserve. I was young and foolish enough I would have done so. Except he tried to put me in a personnel/administrative unit. NOOOO way. I saw it as a recruiting tool they were using. 

[X-Files]

I'm ready - where they at?

 

[Ivanhoe]

The ironic thing is that I had a conversation with a senior NCO a few weeks ago about the Army's rather massive personnel problem, and he mentioned the only solution might be a draft. 

IMHO, military.com is a left-of-center rag that tends to parrot the narratives coming out of the Puzzle Palace...

https://www.military.com/daily-news/opinions/2023/07/29/we-need-limited-military-draft.html

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Today, the military needs only about 160,000 youth from an eligible population of 30 million to meet its recruitment needs. But after two decades of war -- both of which ended unsuccessfully -- and low unemployment, many experts believe the all-volunteer force has reached a breaking point. And American confidence in its military is at a low.

The fastest and most effective way to resolve this recruiting crisis is to change how we recruit.

Instead of an "either an all-volunteer force or a fully conscripted force" model, I propose a both-and solution.

We should have our military recruiters sign up new troops for 11 months out of the year, and then have the Selective Service draft the delta between the military's needs and the total number recruited.

 

Yeah, that'll go over well.

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For nearly a decade now, feckless politicians, using the military as a club to batter their opponents, have exacerbated increasing negative public opinion despite the fact that our military has crushed international terrorism and prevented another large-scale attack on our homeland for 22 years and running.

lol

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-- Joe Plenzler is a retired combat decorated Marine lieutenant colonel who served as the strategic advisor for communication to three successive Commandants of the Marine Corps from 2010 to 2015.

 

[BansheeOne]

That's the Scandinavian model. It has recently been discussed over here, too, but I suspect it needs Scandinavians to work.

[Ivanhoe]

https://redstate.com/jimthompson/2023/08/09/the-army-cant-feed-its-soldiers-stationed-at-texas-ft-cavazos-and-thats-isnt-the-only-problem-there-n790138

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Things at Fort Cavazos are not optimal.

Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood) is located not far from Killeen, Texas, and is the home to the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division, with over 34,5000 uniformed personnel and 48,500 family members. It is a city unto itself. And it can’t feed its residents.

The Military Times reported that the sprawling base had only two of its 10 major dining options open every day for junior enlisted personnel. While the hot Texas summer rolled through central Texas, the base wasn’t able to provide its men and women in uniform with convenient dining, leaving thousands to spend an hour on the road traveling to and from a dining hall just to eat.

 

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A lack of cooks has been blamed. Army cooks have been deployed elsewhere in other states, leaving no one to man the kitchens in Texas. As absurd as that sounds, that is why enlisted personnel were hunting for dining options and traveling up to an hour just to get fed. Since the Army is not deploying vast arrays of personnel to war zones or on a moment’s notice, the lack of logistics, and the lack of planning to man kitchens at Fort Cavazos seems unconscionable and shameful.

The Pentagon can send billions of dollars—and billions of dollars’ worth of equipment—to Ukraine but it can’t staff its own kitchens in the middle of Texas.

 

IMHO, the symptom is that the Army has personnel shortage problems in all sorts of MOSes. The underlying disease is that they have created an exhausting and toxic environment, young folks who are high-functioning will prefer to stay in the civilian sector where they are wanted, and Army leadership prefers to hide in their bullshit bubble. 

 

 

[urbanoid]

Ah, so they renamed Ft. Hood too. Eh...

[R011]

15 hours ago, Ivanhoe said:

https://redstate.com/jimthompson/2023/08/09/the-army-cant-feed-its-soldiers-stationed-at-texas-ft-cavazos-and-thats-isnt-the-only-problem-there-n790138

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IMHO, the symptom is that the Army has personnel shortage problems in all sorts of MOSes. The underlying disease is that they have created an exhausting and toxic environment, young folks who are high-functioning will prefer to stay in the civilian sector where they are wanted, and Army leadership prefers to hide in their bullshit bubble. 

 

 

Apparently, throwing the guys into unit trucks and taking them to an open DFAC isn't an option because all the trucks belong to div and corps who won't erlease them for that purpose.

[rmgill]

On 7/26/2023 at 12:35 AM, X-Files said:

I'm ready - where they at?

 

You could be in a wheel chair and still do your specialty. Its all analysis, sifting data and acerbic PPT summaries. 

[Ivanhoe]

On 8/10/2023 at 4:10 PM, R011 said:

Apparently, throwing the guys into unit trucks and taking them to an open DFAC isn't an option because all the trucks belong to div and corps who won't erlease them for that purpose.

There is very little communication between corps/division level stuff (Gn where n=1, 2, etc) and battalion level (Sn where...).

As for renaming, there have been publicized renames (Hood, Rucker, Bragg, Lee) and there have been stealth renames (Gordon got renamed to Eisenhower). 

[X-Files]

4 hours ago, rmgill said:

You could be in a wheel chair and still do your specialty. Its all analysis, sifting data and acerbic PPT summaries. 

 

[TonyE]

On 8/3/2023 at 3:41 PM, BansheeOne said:

That's the Scandinavian model. It has recently been discussed over here, too, but I suspect it needs Scandinavians to work.

Most likely it does.

Also not abolishing it (the draft in various forms) helps, as keeping it continuously for many decades or even centuries makes it an ingrained part of the national culture.

[EchoFiveMike]

The draft and diversity are basically mutually exclusive in a free society with universal sufferage.

I should probably restrict that to "diversity isn't possible in a free society with universal sufferage."

Or perhaps "permanent conscription isn't possible outside the framework of a nation" with the rather touchy point being that the USA is an empire, not a nation, and hasn't been for a long time.  S/F....Ken M

[FALightFighter]

11 hours ago, EchoFiveMike said:

The draft and diversity are basically mutually exclusive in a free society with universal sufferage.

I should probably restrict that to "diversity isn't possible in a free society with universal sufferage."

Or perhaps "permanent conscription isn't possible outside the framework of a nation" with the rather touchy point being that the USA is an empire, not a nation, and hasn't been for a long time.  S/F....Ken M

Colin Woodard was propose that the United States has NEVER been a nation, but rather a (con)federation of various states dominated by different nations. Extrapolating from his theory, even the American Civil War was really only a civil war in the Appalachian nation (evidenced by the secession of West Virginia, and similar movements in Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina). Outside of Appalachia, it was a contest between the CSA coalition of the Deep South, Tidewater, and Louisiana (I don't think that the Spanish Caribbean was really dominant in south FL in the 1860s) versus the USA coalition of Yankeedom, the Midlands, and (reluctantly) New Netherland. YMMV on the utility of that interpretation.

[Ivanhoe]

Meanwhile, in the Puzzle Palace;

https://victorygirlsblog.com/army-strongly-considering-10-20-cut-to-special-ops-forces/

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The Army is cutting about 3,000 troops, or about 10% from its special-operations ranks, which could include so-called trigger-pullers from the Green Beret commando units who have conducted some of the nation’s most dangerous and sensitive missions around the world, from the jungles of Vietnam to the back alleys of Baghdad.

The reductions would enable the Army to rebalance toward the large conventional ground forces needed in a potential fight in Asia. The trims in the ranks of special forces would also help the Army cope with a recruiting shortfall in a strong labor market. But opponents of the cuts, notably senior special-operations officers, have argued they could hinder training of U.S. partners, including the Ukrainian and Taiwanese militaries, and limit the elite units’ ability to respond to crises.

 

 

So, solve the recruiting and retention metrics by lowering the size of the force. 

 

[Ivanhoe]

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/10/05/report-43-8k-troops-discharged-bidens-military-vaccine-mandate-sought-rejoin/

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Only 43 out of more than 8,000 service members who were discharged from the military over the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate have sought to rejoin, according to a recent report by CNN.

According to the report, 19 have rejoined the Army, 12 have rejoined the Marine Corps, one has rejoined the Air Force, and two have rejoined the Navy.

The report suggested that the low numbers prove that Republicans who say the mandate hurt recruiting and retention were wrong.

 

I'll let you try to puzzle out how a less than 0.5% reenlistment rate shows the mandate didn't hurt recruiting.

 

[rmgill]

KJP sas so!

[FALightFighter]

4 hours ago, Ivanhoe said:

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/10/05/report-43-8k-troops-discharged-bidens-military-vaccine-mandate-sought-rejoin/

I'll let you try to puzzle out how a less than 0.5% reenlistment rate shows the mandate didn't hurt recruiting.

 

That means 7950+ disgruntled former service members are now our in the population, counseling prospects to NOT enlist.

[Ivanhoe]

https://www.mycg.uscg.mil/News/Article/3575592/coast-guard-adjusts-operations-plan-to-mitigate-2024-workforce-shortage/

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Coast Guard mission demands are growing while our Service faces a significant workforce shortage. The Coast Guard is short nearly 10% of the entire enlisted workforce and cannot continue to operate as we have historically with fewer people.  

To mitigate the workforce challenge risk in a deliberative and strategic fashion, the Vice Commandant, Adm. Steven Poulin, has provided specific temporary operational guidance to adapt our operations while prioritizing lifesaving missions, national security and protection of the marine transportation system. 

There will be no loss of search and rescue (SAR) capabilities. However, we will temporarily adjust operations to prioritize our lifesaving missions, national security and protection of the Marine transportation System. 

The Commandant and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard (MCPOCG) today e-mailed the workforce to outline the service’s mitigation strategy.

“The Coast Guard cannot maintain the same level of operations with our current shortfall – we cannot do the same with less. Conducting our missions is often inherently dangerous, and doing so without enough crew puts our members and the American public at increased risk,” wrote Adm. Linda Fagan and MCPOCG Heath Jones. 

 

 

[Ivanhoe]

https://washingtonstand.com/news/army-tries-to-bring-back-soldiers-booted-for-refusing-the-covid-vaccine

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In August of 2021, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made the COVID vaccination shot a requirement for all U.S. servicemembers. President Joe Biden released a statement revealing his strong support before it went into effect. As a result, Politico reported that over “8,400 troops were kicked out of the military for refusing the vaccine.” About a year later, Biden signed a defense bill that repealed the vaccine mandate.

This month, news broke that the Army has sent letters to many of the troops who were ousted, which explains that soldiers can correct their records and reenter the service. The reversal has been met with tremendous backlash.

 

lol

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Retired Army Major Chase Spears wrote about the mistreatment servicemembers faced while the vaccine mandate was in effect. He shared, “The Army requires several immunizations and checkups throughout the year to maintain one’s medical readiness. Not one of those came with the coercive force of the COVID mandate. … It became the primary marker of human worth.” For Spears, the Army officials who heavily enforced the mandate seem to have no remorse for their actions. He added, “Hearkening back to biblical language, you were clean or unclean based on your shot status.”

Here ... We ... Go;

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Many of the soldiers affected by the vaccine mandate were deprived of pay and benefits. According to Breitbart, retired attorney Dale Saran and attorneys Andy Meyer and Brandon Johnson are representing former troops who were kicked out “in three separate lawsuits they plan to turn into a class action lawsuit.” Saran estimated roughly “80,000 to 100,000 service members — both active-duty and reservists — who were impacted by the mandate.”

 

 

[rmgill]

The DoD is like an abusive ex who kicked you out. But says you can come back if you ask nicely. ‘Please come back, but you still have to ask.’ 

[Ivanhoe]

https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2023-12-12/air-force-pilots-bonuses-shortages-12337691.html

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The Air Force is offering large bonuses worth up to $600,000 to experienced aviators to continue flying in the service as it faces a yearslong pilot shortage.

The new retention incentives would pay pilots between $15,000 to $50,000 per year to commit to three- to 12-year contracts, Air Force officials announced recently. The payments would depend on the type of aircraft that a pilot flies and the number of years that a pilot commits to continuing military service, officials said.

The hefty bonuses come as the service remains nearly 2,000 pilots short of its needs, as it competes with commercial airlines and other organizations who pay large salaries for experienced aviators. Air Force Maj. Gen. Adrian Spain, the service’s training and readiness director, said it’s critical to keep trained, experienced pilots in uniform as the United States faces many challenges, including increasingly aggressive actions throughout the world from China and Russia.