The almost-all-volunteer military

August 23, 2006

Calling up troops to involuntary duty through the Individual Ready Reserve came to the fore in June 2004, when 5,600 former soldiers were called up for year-long tours, mostly assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was not, however, a one-time deal.

President Bush has authorized the U.S. Marine Corps to recall 2,500 troops to active duty because there are not enough volunteers returning for duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, Marine commanders announced Tuesday. […]

Marine Col. Guy A. Stratton, head of the manpower mobilization section, told The Associated Press that there is a shortfall of about 1,200 Marines needed to fill positions in upcoming unit deployments.

“Since this is going to be a long war, we thought it was judicious and prudent at this time to be able to use a relatively small portion of those Marines to help us augment our units,” Stratton said, according to the AP.

Keep in mind, this service, which could last up to 18 months, is involuntary, but it’s not necessarily a back-door draft. The IRR includes troops who have already received honorable discharges, but have not yet fulfilled eight years of active duty. They served their four years, but are “on call” for four more. Now, that call is coming through.

That said, one veterans’ group said the IRR call-up is “one of the last steps before resorting to a draft.”

“This move should serve as a wake-up call to America,” said Jon Soltz, an Army captain who served in Iraq and heads the group VoteVets.org, which raises funds for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans running for Congress. “Today’s announcement that thousands of Marines in the Individual Ready Reserve will be called back to go to Iraq is proof that our military is overextended, and there is no plan for victory in Iraq.”

While the Pentagon has repeatedly maintained the armed forces have met their recruiting and retention goals, Soltz says, “Today’s actions speak louder than words.”

What’s more, the LAT noted that this is “the latest sign that the American force is under strain and a signal that the military is having trouble persuading young veterans to return.”

For much of the conflict, the Army also has had to use “stop-loss orders” — which keep soldiers in their units even after their active-duty commitments are complete — as well as involuntary call-ups of its reservists. Both actions have been criticized as a “back-door draft” and are unpopular with service members, many of whom say they have already done their part.

“You can send Marines back for a third or fourth time, but you have to understand you are destroying their lives,” said Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “It is not what they intended the all-volunteer military to look like.” […]

The ready reserve was designed to be a pool of manpower that the Pentagon could draw on in a time of national emergency. But the Iraq war has forced the Army, and now the Marines, to rely on the ready reserve to fill holes in the combat force.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said the Marines’ ready reserve call-up was an example of the wear and tear the Iraq war had inflicted on the armed services, a stress that could hurt the military in the months and years to come.

“The right way to address the issue is to increase the size of the military so you do not have to rely on the call-up of the individual ready reserve,” Reed said. “We should have raised the strength of the Army and Marine Corps three years ago…. It does underscore the strain that is being placed on the land forces — the Army and the Marines.”

The military is exhausted, Afghanistan is getting worse, and the president wants everyone to know that we’ll be in Iraq until 2009, at a minimum. It’s literally painful.

The real painful part of it is that there is no way in hell that there will be any kind of relief for these soldiers and Marines. Forst off, they will never go for a draft because it will cause rioting in the streets and it will smack too much of “a little sliver of jungle in Southeast Asia”. Second, I have to assume it is much harder convincing young people to join the services if they know they are going to Iraq. This little piece by Pam over ar Pandagon is reassuring as well. http://pandagon.net/2006/08/21/military-recruiters-preying-upon-women-looking-to-enlist/

Looks like the only option for soldiers who cannot get any relief fom forced active duty is to vote for their local Democrat supporting a withdrawl/redeployment plan.

  • Isn’t this aiding our enemies, letting them know we are so weak we are calling up inactive reservists. I did it for 5 years after active service and my only duty was to give them my address once a year.

    I was in college, I wonder if they are pulling people out of college ? Are there any deferments when a draft is not in use ?

  • I wonder how many of those 1200 spent the last few months being gung-ho and “patriotic” about the war thinking it was over for them who now are starting to think a little differently?

  • Dale,
    Great point. If that 1200 is similiar to the rest of the nation, then 400 think thought Iraq was a good idea.

  • ScottW:

    “Isn’t this aiding our enemies, letting them know we are so weak we are calling up inactive reservists.”

    A fantastically shrewd point.

    To which I reply:
    Only in a media ruled by logic and truth.
    In a media ruled by corporate republicans your act of pointing this out is treasonous. In effect your clever insight has aided and abetted America’s enemy.

    S a v v y?

    No?

    If not… I suggest you slam down a pitcher of Lieberman-Cheney kool-aid… it will help you understand and feel suitably remorseful.

  • ***…the Pentagon has repeatedly maintained the armed forces have met their recruiting and retention goals….***

    The only reason to activate an IRR callup is that the in-action forces are not receiving sufficient replacement forces to counteract “attrition-events” (personnel rotated home, KIAs, WIAs, etc.). And Soltz is 100% correct—the only thing left after the IRR options are depleted is to reactivate SSIC (Selective Service Intake Centers). Someone needs to ask Rumsfeld why he’s been covering this thing up—and the calls for his resignation need to increase.

    Herr Bush needs to be asked just “wtf” he’s doing to the armed forces with this rubbish. “Iraq” is NOT a “national emergency.” He as much as admitted that in his little press conference the other day. Or, maybe his plan is to decimate the overall groundforce and (1) backpeddle Congress into bringing Selective Service on-line, or (2) use the groundforce depletion as an “emergency” excuse to bring the bombers, missile-frigates, and missile submarines into action. The “draft” could easily be manipulated to determine who “goes” and who “stays”—based on current computer technology—and the “noo-kyoo-lahr” option isn’t really there with the ground troops….

  • hmmmmph. This stuff always reminds me of the day I signed my enlistment papers (long before 9/11). I was signing up for a “four-year” enlistment. The first time I ever heard anything about an eight-year commitment was when I was reading through the contract. So I asked the Sergeant there what that ‘8’ was doing there. His reply? “Oh, the other four is like if there is WW3 or something, just a formality, nothing to worry about.”

    And, the only reason I ever knew about it was because I took the time to read through the enlistment contract- something which many people probably skip, since at that point they are putting a lot of pressure on you to sign the paperwork then and there.

    Now, for people signing up these days, I think they go in more knowledgeable, but many of the people being caught up in these ‘re-calls’ are people who signed up in the pre- 9/11 era, when many people probably had experiences like mine, where having an 8-year obligation didn’t register with people, and, when it did, was just brushed off.

  • As mentioned earlier, over the last year we’ve been hearing that recruiting goals are being met.
    Here’s a sample report from 23 August 2005, one year ago, from http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011439.php
    “Every one of the Army’s 10 divisions — its key combat organizations — has exceeded its re-enlistment goal for the year to date. Those with the most intense experience in Iraq have the best rates. The 1st Cavalry Division is at 136 percent of its target, the 3rd Infantry Division at 117 percent. What about first-time enlistment rates, since that was the issue last spring? The Army is running at 108 percent of its needs. Guess not every young American despises his or her country and our president.

    “The Army Reserve is a tougher sell, given that it takes men and women away from their families and careers on short notice. Well, Reserve recruitment stands at 102 percent of requirements. And then there’s the Army National Guard. We’ve been told for two years that the Guard was in free-fall. Really? Guard recruitment and retention comes out to 106 percent of its requirements as of June 30.”

    If those reports are true AND we are now runnning out of personnel, then the goals were either deliberately low-balled or incompetently estimated. In either case, shouldn’t heads roll for that? Isn’t this ultimately Rumsfeld’s responsibility?

  • One line in the LAT piece really got me: “The ready reserve was designed to be a pool of manpower that the Pentagon could draw on in a time of national emergency.”

    So, now that we’re drawing on the IRR, one might conclude that the President who runs on protecting America has actually abused our armed services to the point of a “national emergency(?)” Maybe this is how you justify nuking Iran.

  • So, now that we’re drawing on the IRR, one might conclude that the President who runs on protecting America has actually abused our armed services to the point of a “national emergency(?)” — beep52

    Not just that… but he’s leaving us with a bare butt to the ice should there be a national emergency.

  • W’s war of choice just killed a 21-year-old Marine from my town. What an incredible waste of a young man’s life, though we should all be proud of his service. But W, Cheney, Rummy et al. have much to answer for.

    ScottW: “Isn’t this aiding our enemies, letting them know we are so weak we are calling up inactive reservists.”

    True, however, I think our “enemies” had a pretty good idea of the sad state of our nation (in general) in the aftermath of Katrina.

  • Castor,
    I remember that moment at the MEPS center when the recruiting NCO was going over my enlistment, and made about the same comment, except he said something like, “only if the Soviets break through the Fulda Gap”.

    Of course, once they burn through the IRR, they’ll start scavenging through DoD records for ANYONE who served who still has a heartbeat.

    Can you say “Volkstrum”?

  • On a related note:

    Gay Discharges Mount As Bush Orders Troop Recall

    As the number of gays discharged from the military under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” continues to increase in record numbers President Bush has ordered thousands of Marine Corps troops back to active duty in the first involuntary recall since the early days of the Iraq war.

    The hypocrisy of this administration knows no bounds.

  • I checked out the link going to ABC’s Brian Ross page concerning the possibility of a future draft. The comments would make the 101st Fighting Keyboardists, who I’m sure will enlist after the IRR runs out of bodies, gag. But ‘m sure the their sentiments mirror the general publics in some respect.

    Sept. 11 was a crime and we answer with an unprovoked and irresponsible war. Crimes merit a response by police agencies and the judicial system, not the four branches of our armed forces. So while Bush goes on vacation for the rest of August, those who have given to this struggle will be squeezed like a dry lemon and those responsible will muse about the problem over a martini in Kennebunkport.

    I don’t see a draft happening simply because of the Bush doctrine that during his presidency few will feel the direct repurcussions of his policies, whether those are economic, military or other. That will be left for other generations and other presidents to deal with. Think of it as the Michael Jackson “Neverland” policy toward inconvenient truths.

  • Before chasing down the last reservists who have already served their active-duty terms, shouldn’t there be a call-up of people who still haven’t finished their initial active-duty commitments to the Air National Guard from previous decades?

  • N.Wells- Of course they are exceeding re-enlistment figures. Some of my friends have re-enlisted while downrange, and all give pretty much the same answer for why. 1) people are getting $15-$20K tax-free (a figure unheard of a few years ago for anything outside of S.F. and such. And these ones are just engineers and infantry…), and 2) they are getting told that they will be extended anyway, which gives them the choice of a) being involuntarily extended and receiving nothing for their trouble, or b) re-enlisting and at least getting some extra cash.
    They are VERY aware these days of the 8-year commitment…

  • Burning through our IRRs is the same as setting a date for withdrawal — they both send a message to our enemy. Hopefully our allies, the Iraqis, will get the same message.

  • I don’t dispute your info, Castor Troy, and thanks for it. Nonetheless, we still have the question, why were recruitment goals set so unrealistically low?

  • “we still have the question, why were recruitment goals set so unrealistically low?” – N. Wells

    Because Soldiers and Marines cost money. You have to pay them, equip them and train them. Training particularly takes time which takes money. Pulling reservists back into uniform is a lot cheaper than recruiting new soldiers and marines.

    Remember, we can’t afford to treat these guys brain injuries if we are going to build the “George Walker Bush” CVN-next.

  • At some point there has to be a draft, with 2500 dead, and adding 1200, that it still 1300 less people. I know we have the reservist and injured, but in a war at some point, without a draft, you are going to run out of bodies, right ??

  • Lance- not only cheaper, but much easier. You have to convince someone to enlist. An involuntary recall is much simpler to do, and it gets you the extra body without all the hasstle. Same with re-enlistments. It’s much easier to talk to a guy you already have, giving a little side ‘threat’ that they might be involuntarily extended anyway, while offering some extra cash to make it go down smoother.

    N.Wells- the recruitment goals were set low because the Army knew what they could reach. Rather than take an optimum number and attempt to reach that (while knowing that they would miss it), they just calculated some numbers beneath what they decided they could actually reach. That way they avoid bad press. Nothing sinister.

  • My brother leaves in January. He is IRR National Guard and one of the invol. recall. He’ll leave behind a wife and three girls. I feel an immense sense of pride that my brother is to serve his country in a time of war. But all of that is crowded out by the anger and outrage I feel. The rage I feel that it has been allowed to get this far. Is my brother really supposed to die so that these people can save face? So someone else can get rich?God save us in November. Bring back the Democrats!!!

  • Castor Troy, I’m not trying to beat a dead horse here, but yes, it’s obvious that wishful thinking, incompetence, and/or lowballing in the service of political expediency played a role in setting targets that were reachable but which are not yielding enough recruits to sustain current military activities. But this is not something to pass off with “well, of course they would do that” – it’s not sinister or mysterious, but it darn well should be the cause of outrage, with congressional hearings and angry press conferences on who exactly contributed to this mess, followed by heads rolling on the carpet.

  • As a member of the IRR and OIF veteran who has currently been involuntarily mobilized and forced to serve 1 year past my military service obligation I stumble upon these stories and blogs all the time. The stories are usually the same and the comments posted are usually are the same. But the bottom line is what have you individuals done to prevent this or to stop it now? Do you think anybody really reads these stories or posts? Does the press or the average American really care about the abuse that is going on to veterans like me? Nobody cares. There are two types of evil people, people who do evil and people who don’t stop people from doing evil. So if you really want to do something write/call your senator/congressman. Write to the press. Do something. Or you can just sit there any complain as people like me indefinitely serve in this war.

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