Posted on Jan 11, 2020
PO3 Aaron Hassay
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Take the example of a Navy Guided Missile Frigate Combat ship normally manned with 200-220 full time approximately. Now short that crews full time by 30-40 and fill those billets with a reserve enlisted. What if one of those reserve enlisted is just 18 and never served full time yet? So his e1 e2 e3 e4 experience part time assigned is going to be so different there is no Training manual that ever considered such experience. Would not dangerous working conditions exist mixing e1 e2 e3s with in the same operational unit with vastly different amounts of experience individually and as a team? What about psychology of adaption acceptance experience creating safe strong team bonds for operational duty? The rest of the crew has to figure out how to make this work. The other full time e1 e2 e3 e4 have to cover. The part time reservist just has to figure out how to survive both not being understood, still try to survive off the ship, survive on the ship and the 18 year old Reservist starting out his adult life will have a rubix cube to figure out, assignment to a ship permanently part time otherwise on call 24/7 full time ship manuals to qualify in regardless of duty status, will never have medical benefits for such thing as motion sickness, heat exhaustion, joint problems, stress, and the pay is far below poverty limits to pay for rent and food etc etc off ship...
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Responses: 4
MAJ Ken Landgren
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The is a prime example of leadership making up for the weaknesses of a unit. Good leaders will overcome this kind of situation.
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CPT Lawrence Cable
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Why would that Rated Reservist be at any more of a disadvantage than that E-2 coming into the fleet from A- School? As far as I know, Naval Reservist get the same benefits as full time Navy when they are activated. As far as keeping up with qualifications, and Navy does Enlisted and Officer education entirely different that the other services, that would normally be the job of that Reservist's home unit.
The Army has filled in with individuals Reservist and National Guard since I was still Active Reserve, I did one tour myself. A MOS qualified Guardsman should be able to walk into a Active unit and serve in the same MOS at his/her rank with a reasonable level of expertise. Sure, it takes time to learn SOP's and adjust to operational tempos, but we do it all the time for new guys and transfers anyway.
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LTC Stephen B.
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Edited >1 y ago
How do you handle new enlistees then? Aren't they even less experienced than reservists? If the defecation hits the rotary oscillator, don't you want reservists that have at least SOME experience instead of draftees with none - and if so, isn't this a prime way for them to get that experience?

Ground and air forces do this all the time, not sure why it would be a unique problem for the fleet?
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