Competing Essays Published on Use of Reserve Component
Competing Essays Published on Use of Reserve Component
Essays with vastly different views on how the National Guard has been used for various missions at home and overseas over the past two years are the newest professional papers published, in a point-counterpoint style, by the Association of the U.S. Army.
An author who asked for anonymity so he could freely express his concerns writes in his paper, “The Reserve Component Crisis Necessitates Re-Examining the Total Army Concept,” that heavy use of the National Guard in the past two years has strained the force and may have hurt it.
Expressing his opinion, and not that of the Army or AUSA, he writes that the strain of no-notice and short-notice deployments for a variety of domestic missions could have long-lasting implications on reserve component soldiers because they’ve been called away too many times from their civilian jobs.
“Increasing domestic emergencies are snowballing the problems that reserve component soldiers face,” he writes, acknowledging public support for the critical involvement of the Army National Guard and Army Reserve in COVID-19 response and domestic security missions.
Increased use of reserve component troops exacerbates “the inherent problems that arise when a part-time force is being used out of accordance with its natural order,” he writes.
Not everyone shares the view that there has been harm. In a counterpoint, retired Maj. Gen. James “Red” Brown acknowledges that the reserve components have worked hard and seen short-notice mobilizations, but he sees this as exactly why reserve forces exist. The Guard performed “magnificently” while facing many challenges, writes Brown, who served in several key roles in the Texas National Guard, including as commanding general of the 36th Infantry Division, and was a deputy commanding general at Army Forces Command before retiring in 2019.
A larger Regular Army might reduce emergency demands on Army National Guard and Army Reserve troops, but that isn’t what the Army decided when it set its force structure mix, Brown writes. “Tough decisions had to be made,” he said, accepting the idea that the threat situation might change, so the mix might someday be modified.
The author criticizing the Army used the phrase “breach of trust” to describe the busy training and deployment schedules of the National Guard, but Brown writes, “I believe nothing is further from the truth.”
“Since 9/11, Guardmembers have joined with the complete and full knowledge that they would train and deploy,” Brown writes.