WASHINGTON - Today's reserve component members do not want to go
back to the old "one-weekend-a-month, two-weeks-during-the-year" paradigm,
the assistant secretary of defense for Reserve Affairs told the House Armed
Services Committee today.
"Everyone in the reserve component today makes a conscious choice to serve,"
said Dennis McCarthy. "They have enlisted and re-enlisted with the full
understanding that it means service in combat."
One of President Obama's key goals is to sustain an all-volunteer force.
However, the services have learned since 9/11 that the all-volunteer force
can never be large enough to fight a sustained conflict without
reinforcements.
And those reinforcements must come from either a return to conscription or a
strong reserve component. "The latter course ... is the preferable one," said
McCarthy, adding that the leaders of the reserve components must train, equip
and sustain them.
McCarthy said about 750,000 members of the reserve component have been
mobilized in support of current operations. The daily average has been about
140,000.
"We cannot sustain this effort without the support of our families and
employers," he said.
Finally, McCarthy said as operations draw down, the reserve components must
be used on a rotational basis.
A "significant investment" has been made in the reserve components ... "and
it makes good sense from an economic standpoint to get a return on that
investment," he said.
Army Maj. Gen. Raymond Carpenter, the acting director of the Army National
Guard, agreed with McCarthy's description of today's reserve components.
"The men and women who serve in the Army National Guard today do so with the
full understanding that they are likely to be deployed overseas," he said.
"Some of them join for that very reason."
Carpenter said the Army Guard's recruiting and retention are strong today,
because of the potential for deployment. "This shift in expectation is a
central aspect of the National Guard's shift to being a fully operational
force.
"They want to remain central players in the nation's defense and would be
resistant to any move to return to a role limited to a strictly strategic
reserve."
Air Force Lt. Gen. Harry M. "Bud" Wyatt III, the director of the Air National
Guard, said his component "proves day in and day out the availability and
accessibility of the Guard, and we are there for our communities."
In the past year, Air Guard members have helped to battle floods in North
Dakota, ice storms in Kentucky and the tsunami in American Samoa.
"These are just a few examples of how the ANG provides exceptional expertise,
experience and capabilities to mitigate disasters and their consequences,"
Wyatt said.