May 2009 Special Report: Army Guard and Army Reserve 

The Army National Guard and Army Reserve are enjoying tremendous growth while filling its ranks with the ‘right type of soldiers.’

As the Army Reserve prepares to deploy more troops to Afghanistan, its top officer said he anticipates no decrease, at least in the near term, in the need for Army reservists in Iraq.

Since 2005, the number of Army National Guard enlistees has grown due in large part to enlistment bonuses ranging from $2,000 to $15,000.

At a time when the American economy is stressed and the nation’s security challenges demand a responsive, operational reserve force, the chief of the Army Reserve, Lt. Gen. Jack C. Stultz, has reached out to employers asking them to partner with the Army Reserve on employment strategies dealing with deployments and the challenges they face in supporting the deployments of their employees serving in the reserve.

“We keep about 40,000 of our soldiers on active duty and we don’t see that slowing down,” the chief of the Army Reserve told attendees at the Senate Reserve Caucus breakfast March 19. “We have the enabling force.”

The Army’s senior enlisted advisers told a key House subcommittee that there was stress on the force that was showing itself in increased number of suicides and cases of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.