U.S. Army to boot reserve soldiers who won't fight

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N09187506.htm

WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Army said on Monday it will begin the process of kicking out 80 reserve soldiers who have ignored for about a year and a half mobilization orders for likely duty in Iraq or Afghanistan.

They are members of the 110,000-strong Individual Ready Reserve, a manpower pool of people currently leading civilian lives who were previously in the regular Army or reserves but still have some service obligation remaining. Many have been out of uniform for years.

The Army said it has issued mobilization orders to about 5,700 people in the IRR, with the bulk of these going out in the summer of 2004. The Army said it will soon begin holding "separation proceedings" in St. Louis for 80 IRR soldiers who failed to report for duty in accordance with their mobilization orders.

Until the Iraq war, the IRR had been a seldom-tapped personnel reserve, but the military has been strained in maintaining troop levels in the war that began in March 2003. The United States currently has 153,000 troops in Iraq.

[Ready4Change]

1. They gonna include Bush?

I hear he still owes Uncle Sam about 6 months?

[peacebaby3]

2. This is probably good news for these soldiers. They wanted to go after

them as being AWOL and court-martial them. I think they have toned it down because they will have such a hard time with the political climate the way it is right now and recruitment and retention running low. They are also going to separate them but nobody will be dishonorably discharged either.

I know they keep hyping how good retention is and it is better than you would think because of the IRR factor if you have been in less than 8 years (they can come back and get you anyway with no bonus)and the huge sign on bonuses, but they are losing tons of mid level people especially. The people with experience and a lot of years in are leaving or retiring (even if they would have stayed in over 20 yrs.) My husband is one of them. He is retiring with 20 yrs. in this September.

I think they are trying to show muscle, but treading carefully because they are afraid of the public backlash as well.

[NV Whino]

3. And this is bad, how?

Probably going to lose some benefits of some kind, but given the military is cutting benefits anyway, I can't see that they are losing a lot.