[Sir Taliesin]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: Theoretically, the National Guard is reserved for state-side duties and defense. Since when did the "reserve troops" become the mainstay of the military? That's exactly the sort of thing that gets us stretched too thin.

When we went to an All Volunteer Army. We also cut our defense spending to the point that we could no longer field a huge active force. Since we couldn't keep a large active army, many of the missions were placed under the responsiblity of the Reserves and National Guard. The commands in the Reserve and the State National Guard Commands loved this because the Federal government turned over a large amount of money to this organizations to spend on training, equipment and infrastructure (i.e. Armorys and Reserve Centers, ranges and over facilities etc, etc.)

The primary mission of the Reserves and National Guard is Combat Support and Combat Service Support. In other words, Military police, communications, logistics, maintence and transportation. Most units that make up the Reserves and National Guard cover theses area. There are also some Combat units (most of these are in the National Guard). Combat Arms Units are Infantry, Armor, Artillary, and Engineers. There are also some SF (Special Forces) units mostly in the National Guard.

BTW the Reserves are under the direct command of the Federal Government and the National Guard is under the nominal command of the individual states, except in a time of crisis or a national emergency. At the point they are placed under federal control.

As for them not having adequate training, it usually comes down to the unit commander as to whether or not the unit is ready to go to war. If the Unit Commander is worth his salt then the unit is training every drill weekend. I mean quality training. Soldiers involved in those kinds of units tend to be good troops, cause the bad apples get weeded out quickly and either find another unit that will put up with their lazy asses or get thrown out because of lack of participation.

In my 15 years in the active reserves, it was my experience that it got tougher as the years went. More time was required in the field during AT and we had more FTXs (field training exercise. They lasted the WHOLE weekend and usually started in Friday night) on drill weekends. As I got higher in rank, I had to out in more time throught the month than just one weekend. Senoir NCOs and officers got together through the week and planned out the drill weekend. We didn't get paid for it either. Also many of our ATs (Annual Training) were overseas, which required an additional week (3 weeks instead of the normal 2). While I was with my old unit, we had ATs in Panama, the Christmas Islands, Guatamaula, Honderous, Jordon, Turkey and Eygpt.

After Desert Storm, the Army made a conscious effort to make sure all Reserve and National Guard Troops were deployable. If you were a single mom or dad and had nobody to keep your children, then you had to get out. Many people that had businesses in civilian life left as well. Hard to run a business from overseas in a combat zone. All this was and is pointed out to the troops. It is their choice to stay or go if there is going to be a hardship. They know there is always the possiblity they could be deployed for an extended period of time. They go over all of this EVERY year with ALL troops. There is nothing hidden. But you don't get to opt out at the last minute either.

Also I must point out that during my deployment to Desert Storm, my wife lacked for nothing. All our interest rates on our loans were cut to nothing. We recieved a housing allowance and a utility allowance, as well as regular pay, combat pay, free health insuance, dirt cheap life insurance (which I still maintain at an obsencily cheap price!) and a depentant allowance. When all was said and done the entire difference between my Civilian salary and my Military Pay (Sergeant, E-5 pay grade) was about $50. And I made above the median income in 1991! I don't think much has changed since then as far as pay goes.