The Guard and Reserve Prepare for 2000-2001 and Beyond

The National Guard and Reserve continue to fill the holes left by the downsizing of the active duty military. While major deployments involving hundreds of personnel for six months at a time are planned and announced well in advance, other services call on reservists on an 'as needed' basis.

The emphasis has moved away from massive, lengthy deployments to using smaller increments of reservists and guardsmen -- sometimes as few as one or two - to address specific, immediate needs. This lessens the impact on the civilian employer and the families of the reservists and guardsmen. It provides a better chance for the individuals to coordinate their active duty commitments around their schedules and the needs of their service at the time.

Here are some of the major deployments already scheduled for 2000 and beyond and a look at how the different guards and reserve now handle deployments.

ARMY NATIONAL GUARD:
The major deployments for the Army National Guard are to Bosnia as part of the NATO Stabilization Force (SFOR).

Under this plan, Active and Reserve units work under a single integrated command structure, which is commanded by either an Active or Reserve Component division headquarters. This "AC/RC Mission Capabilities Team" shares responsibility for the SFOR mission.

From October 2000 to October 2001, the 3rd Infantry Division will serve as Task Force Eagle Headquarters for SFOR 8 and SFOR 9, commanding a Brigade Combat Team (BCT) for both rotations. SFOR 8 (October, 2000 - March, 2001) will use National Guard companies from the 30th Enhanced Separate Brigade (eSB) of the North Carolina National Guard and the 45th eSB of the Oklahoma National Guard. The other major unit participating in SFOR 8 is the 119 MP Company from Rhode Island with 136 members. Guardsmen from Arizona and Alabama will round out the compliment of personnel for that rotation.

The 48th eSB of the Georgia National Guard will command a BCT comprised of a 50/50 mix of Active and National Guard companies for SFOR 9 (April 2001- September 2001). This will be a first for SFOR. The Georgia Guard will supply 1235 members of the approximately 4400 US military members stationed in Bosnia for that rotation, with units from Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and Wyoming supplying the remaining 267 Guard personnel.

Another first occurs in SFORs 10 and 12 (October 2001-April 2002 and October 2002-April 2003). Those rotations will be commanded by National Guard Divisions - Virginia's 29th Infantry Division for SFOR 10 and Pennsylvania's 28th Infantry Division for SFOR 12.

AIR NATIONAL GUARD:
Air Guard deployments operate differently from Army Guard. While their current mission is to support operations in Eastern Europe and the Iraq no-fly zone in Joint Guardian, Northern Watch, Joint Forge, and Southern Watch, it is done on a much smaller scale.

Generally, entire units do not deploy, deployments are not predicted or announced far in advance, and deployments usually last only for a few weeks. The Air Guard responds to developing situations that usually can not be predicted. During the summer and fall of 2000, air-to-air refueling wings, postal augmentation and other administrative support functions, and bomber wings were all involved in operations.

"So far this fiscal year, which is October 1st, 1999 through the first week of July, 2000, the Air Guard has supported the active component commanders in chiefs of the five theaters we operate out of with 229,055 man days of support," according to Jack Hooper, spokesperson for the National Guard Bureau.

Will this level of activity be repeated in 2001?

"It all depends. We didn't think we were still going to be over there right now, but we had a little problem in Kosovo and our friends in Iraq keep testing us in northern and southern fly zones. It's completely world dependent. Whatever the nation requires, we'll do to the best of our ability in supporting Air Force operations."

AIR FORCE RESERVE:
The operation of the Air Force Reserve does not include mass deployments of squadrons or other units. The Reserve operates under the concept of an Expeditionary Aerospace Force, according to Capt. David Kurle of the Reserve Public Affairs Office.

"Under this concept, individual reservists deploy to fill specific jobs required by the Air Force at the deployed location. It's not that a whole units picks up and moves."

On the aviation side, there is some continuity and advance notice of deployments. "We incorporate aircraft and personnel from other units. For example, with Northern Watch in Turkey, we have two F-16 units out there. They are there in two-week chunks. So next week, two other F-16 units are going to go and do their time out there. We swap out aircraft and personnel every two weeks."

On the support side, however, there is less advance notice. Basically, the Air Force notifies the reserve units of its needs and asks for volunteers to fill them. "People in ones and twos from different units deploy and fill specific jobs. The needs change constantly." One month, the Air Force may have enough loadmasters available. The next, because of active duty rotations, reserve and guard commitments, and mission requirements, loadmasters may be in short supply. That's when the word goes out to reserve units for volunteers.

Long deployments of even individuals is something the Air Force Reserve avoids unless the reservist requests it. "That's because of the citizen airmen aspect. Unless it's a war, you can't really take these people out of their civilian jobs for six months. The civilian employers are not very happy about that." If it creates too much of a hardship, "we wouldn't have any people left."

NAVY RESERVE:
Consideration for both the reservist and the civilian employer is a prime consideration for the Navy Reserve, too. It also follows the concept of integrating reservists into the active duty fleet on a more individual, as-needed basis. This is proving to be effective, both in practical application for fleet operations and in cost-effective use of time and training.

The fleet now matches reservists to specific billet needs. Since most Navy reservists are veterans, honing skills and proficiencies acquired while on active duty is an efficient and practical use of personnel. In this "One Navy Force" concept, training focuses on real-world tasks with as much actual shipboard or shore operations contact as practical.

Under this concept, entire reserve units generally do not deploy. However, individual reservists or small groups from reserve units participate in major fleet operations, based on the Navy's needs and their availability. Some of the more significant are: ongoing counter narcotics operations in the Caribbean and off the coast of Mexico; CARAT, Ulchi Focus Lens, and Foal Eagle, all in the Orient; Northwest Pacific War Games; and Operation Southern Watch in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The overall impact of the reservists on the active fleet is enormous. While allocated only 4% of the Navy's annual budget, the reserve provides 100% of the fleet's airlift capabilities and inshore-undersea warfare assets, 99% of all naval control of shipping, and 93% of all cargo handling, more than ½ of all steaming days, and 41% of all naval flying hours.

COAST GUARD:
"The Coast Guard Reserve is a manpower pool for the rest of the Coast Guard," according to Lt. Robert Hanley, Assistant Chief of Reserve Communications. "We no longer own boats and there are no longer reserve units. We have a pool of bodies available for mobilization and for day-to-day augmentation of the Coast Guard. The vast majority of our 8,000 Selected Reservists are assigned to active duty Coast Guard units. That's the whole Team Coast Guard concept."

Coast Guard reservists are part of a regular active duty unit. They train and work with their active duty counterparts on a routine basis.

"That's a good thing, because these folks are part of those units. They are part of the crew, so the active duty commander knows what jobs these folks are doing and what training they need and they know what their surge needs are going to be to call on those folks."

The major annual deployment for the Coast Guard is Summer Stock. This is one of the Coast Guard's ongoing reserve surge operations that has been in operation for more than twenty years. It also involves individuals and not entire active duty units.

Because of the increased recreational boating activity in the Great Lakes during the summer, many small boat stations need extra personnel. Many of these are seasonal stations, which operate only during the summer.

"A lot of reservists come on active duty in the summer and go to these small boat stations for Summer Stock. That's a bit out of the norm when you think of reserve activities, because you think of guys going to Bosnia or participating in counter-drug operations in the Caribbean."

Most surge activities for the Coast Guard are planned events. Typical was OpSail 2000 when nearly 60 tall ships sailed into New York harbor. "Activities New York had tons of reservists on active duty working that event. That became, in effect, a deployment for those folks."

The Coast Guard is the only service authorized to involuntarily recall reservists for peacetime disasters. It's invoked on average about once a year, most recently during the emergency created by Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Reservists helped with evacuations, rescues, clean-up, and repair in North Carolina and other areas hard-hit by the storm. Even then, according to Lt. Hanley, it's more a case of individuals responding to the crisis than an entire unit moving out.

The Secretary of Transportation also authorized a recall of reservists for Y2K, if needed. Perhaps the Millennium's major non-event, "there was a high-level of concern about the impact that a shutdown would have had on our ports and waterways, so we had authorization in our hip pocket in case that was necessary."

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