Call Back Veterans From The IRR, Do You Agree Or Disagree!

In a Recent Armytimes Article dated 2 November 2015.

While most military recruits sign up for active or reserve component duty for three or four years, their enlistment contracts actually obligate them to a total service agreement of eight years. Troops who choose to hang up their uniforms short of eight years of service transition into the Individual Ready Reserve for the remainder of that commitment and serve as an emergency backup “force of last resort.”
The vast majority of IRR members are never called back to duty. But that could change in a big way if reserve advocates gain traction on a new plan to significantly overhaul how the IRR is managed. The goal is to make this historically disorganized component into a more integrated, reliable and useful part of the ‘total force’ in an era when the services are under pressure to reduce active-duty personnel strength and its associated high costs. The Reserve Forces Policy Board, a federal advisory group, has suggested that a revamped IRR might seek to tap inactive vets for a wider range of potentially short-term missions, creating a relationship similar to the private sector’s use of part-time consultants.

The board is calling for new laws and policies that would redefine the IRR and the role of more than 250,000 young veterans who do not drill regularly or receive pay but have prior military service and are committed to mobilize in the event of a crisis.
The push comes at a time when the military is shrinking, defense budgets remain tight and the Pentagon is looking for ways to modernize the all-volunteer force and tap new sources of talent. The IRR is “a pool of pre-trained, high-quality manpower that the American military has invested a lot of money in — and they are just sitting there,” Arnold Punaro, chairman of the Reserve Forces Policy Board, said in an interview.

“If we are looking at creating greater flexibility and maximizing the use of all talent, the IRR could playa very important role.”Punaro and the RFPB recently sent Defense Secretary Ash Carter a letter urging large-scale changes that could include: Improving official tracking of individual IRR troops and their skills by modernizing personnel data systems.

Possibly changing the laws governing when and how IRR troops are mobilized. Attaching IRR troops to traditional reserve units. Offering IRR troops access to some level of Tricare health coverage and retirement benefits. Allowing IRR troops to freeze their high-year-tenure clocks to incentivize the possibility of resuming a career with the active or Select Reserve components. In most cases, the military is able to fill any gaps in its manpower needs through the traditional reserve components, known as the Selected Reserve, in which part time troops are assigned to units, drill regularly and are often dubbed “weekend warriors.” But during severe personnel shortages, the IRR is tapped, too.

During the peak years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, about 30,000 soldiers and Marines from the IRR were mobilized for deployments. The most common occupational fields for which they were recalled were the combat arms, military police, vehicle operators, mechanics and engineers.
The Navy and Air Force also.
The current number of people in each
service’s Individual Ready Reserve:
Army: 93,861
Marine Corps: 70,188
Navy: 53,353
Air Force: 36,751
SOURCE: MILITARY SERVICE