Notice to Army Reserve members: don't count on continuing to avoid mobiliz

[Judi Lynn]

Notice to Army Reserve members: don't count on continuing to avoid mobilization

ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer Tuesday, January 20, 2004



(01-20) 22:48 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

Members of the Army Reserve sometimes complain of not knowing when -- or whether -- they might be mobilized for active duty. Soon they may complain of knowing all too well.

Under a plan spelled out Tuesday by Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly, chief of the Army Reserve, the mobilization system would be changed fundamentally so that Reserve members would be scheduled for mobilization every four or five years for periods of nine to 12 months.

Gone would be the days of training limited to a weekend a month and two weeks during the summer. (snip)

"There will be some people who will say, `I do not wish to be a part of that kind of force,"' Helmly said.

To offset those losses, he wants the Army to begin offering bonuses to soldiers leaving the active-duty Army to persuade them to join the Reserves.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/01/20/national0148EST0418.DTL

[lcordero]

1. they won't be any new part-time soldiers then

the "protections" right now just don't go far enough in protecting a soldier from getting dumped from their job.

It says a lot about the desperate state of affairs when a soldier rejects a bonus to re-enlist and takes his or her chances in a bleak economy.

on edit:
Remember this: the armed forces do not offer bonuses during recessions unless they are desperate.

[lebkuchen]

3. That bonus was even increased by a whopping $5,000

to $10,000 for an added 3 year commitment.

Yes, the Bushies are desperate. He'll have to go beyond the current "stop-loss" to draft newbies if he plans to stay in the Middle East. Contrary to his insistence, the world is not safer over there. Quite the contrary.

I had to laugh at *'s lauding the "Coalition" forces. Australia has sent 150. BFD.

[ET Awful]

2. If that plan goes into effect, say goodbye to the reserves. . .

No one will enlist in the reserves if that's the case.

[LizW]

4. "There will be some..."

"...people who will say, 'I do not wish to be a part of that kind of force," Helmly said.

No freaking kidding.

The Bush/Rumsfeld/PNAC doctrine of perpetual, pre-emptive war is capable of destroying our nation's volunteer military.

[Dhalgren]

5. It has already destroyed it.

The current military is no longer "volunteer". With all of the "stop-loss" and extended deployments, the "volunteer" part of this equation has vanished.

[Voltaire99]

8. Yes, we have de facto conscription of the volunteers. (n/t)

[Mari333]

6. As my stepson sits at Ft Dix he has his marching orders for Iraq

Army Reserves, and he leaves in a week or so..do we get to call him? NO...does he get to call us and let us know where he is??? NO....
Its like he disappeared and fell off the face of the earth
The only thing we can do is fight to get *bUsh out of office.
In the meantime, my husband sits by the phone and hopes he will call us.
He got his "Operation Iraqi freedom " (:cough-bullshit-cough:) orders on Xmas Eve. So much for fucking Xmas.
and the recruiters are hitting all the small towns grabbing up the poor kids with no jobs BECAUSE THERE ARE NO JOBS and promising them large quantities of money if they sign their friends up too.
assholes.
I want to stand in front of the recruiting office and scream out the names of the dead in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think I will.

[colonel odis]

7. first of all....

i genuinely hope your stepson makes it through his time in iraq safe and sound.

the return of the draft is, i imagine, a done deal. i can't remember where i read it, but somewhere i saw that it will go up to age 44 (for once, i'm glad i'm 46) and the exemptions/deferments of a generation ago will no longer be applicable.

i've been e-mailing college republican and young republican chapters and asking them why they're supporting a guy who's going to draft them and ship them overseas to escort oil engineers. (gotten a couple of snippy little replies, too.)

maybe signs need to be stuck in front of recruiting offices asking kids to wake up. the thought of those guys preying on poor, small town kids makes me want to throw up. used to be, the military was a viable way for a poor kid from a small town to get out and see the world. now it's a way to put your life at risk for an oil company.

[Retrograde]

9. tying two threads together

if makes a werid sort of sense: Americans need to get new job skills, military needs temporarily warm bodies - is this the new jobs training program?

linda

[lostnfound]

10. If so, I predict hiring discrimination by patriotic corporate America n/t