Question for weekend warriors (reservists)

[jeffreyi]

Are deployments, recall to active duty, happening? Is a deployment mandatory or somewhat optional? Do you or can you request it, or does it just happen. A local person I know is being deployed, kind of out of the blue. Is this common? Apologies for my ignorance about the military reserves and the proper expressions to use.

[cloudbase]

1. It may depend on one's MOS. n/t

[Tipperary]

2. In other.words, it may depend on ones job classification.

[DVRacer]

3. Deployments are always optional

The time you spend in Leavenworth is not (by the way that’s a military prison).
When you sign your contract you become obligated to the needs of the branch of service you signed up for. Doesn’t matter active or reserve you go where and when you’re ordered to be. Sometimes you get advanced notice but I have been sent with less than 24hrs notice and so have immediate family members. My father transitioned from active duty to reserve when I was born I was number four kid. That was in the 70’s after Vietnam which his first deployment was in ‘65. In December of 1990 in less than 72hrs he was on the ground in Saudi Arabia from our house in Oklahoma. Short answer they call you go you can be upset but be upset where they told you to be.

[jeffreyi]

4. This person (female)

Is an officer and a medical professional. Apparently she can't say too much about what's happening, just that things seem to be ramping up.

[Lee-Lee]

5. Ok long answer here

Some deployments are optional in that there are always units that need more people and you can volunteer if you are a fit into the slot.

Some are not, if your unit is going or you get indentified to fill a slot and you get involuntarily transferred.

Most deployments are not short notice, although ones you get volunteered for or involuntarily transferred to go on can be.

Regardlessof how, if a person is deployed they will have copies of deployment orders where they are called to active duty available to provide to their employer to show they are deploying. The legal protections afforded a deploying reservist are the same regardless of if the deployment is voluntary or involuntarily.


The days of “I got a call at home and was on a plane a few hours later for overseas” don’t happen anymore. There are a host of tasks that must be done for someone to be considered “validated” for a deployment and put on the most rapid fast tack you need about 2 weeks to make that happen. This is all done at what is known as the “mobilization station”, designated based where deploying units report before going overseas where they are run through individual and collective tasks and training to make sure they are ready to go. Individual tasks include qualifying with their weapon, testing on common tasks, medical exams, getting supplies of prescriptions for the expected duration, etc.


The “I can’t say much” game is probably more exaggeration than reality. You can’t discuss actual movement dates where you would be going overseas or exact destinations but it’s oerfevtky fine to say you expect to deploy for a certain period, and encouraged to let employers know as far ahead as possible the dates you expect to be away.

[jeffreyi]

6. Thanks, very helpful

When I first heard this, I thought, crap, war. However there are complications with this person, debts and so on. So things are not always as they seem, apparently.

[Lee-Lee]

7. A lot of people volunteer for various deployments and tours

because the pay is good.

If this person is a medical officer there are always chances for various tours that are not in a combat zone where there need people. When I came back from Afghanistan I was offered a chance to do another 18 months in the US training and evaluating units about to deploy. I had just lost my full time LE job due to a change in administration before I left and that was a sure gig instead of hunting a new LE job and the pay was about 50% better than what I was likely to find as LE and I could rent my house out another 18 months and pocket that as well.

I know people who do almost nothing but jump from tour to tour to tour, and stay on active duty almost all the time.