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May 19, 2004

The Fear Draft


A little more digging on the IRR callup matter shows local and military media are paying attention, but the national outfits haven't picked up on the story yet.

Short version: Army recruiters are taking advantage of a poorly worded memo to cold-call people with time left in their overall obligation and scare them into signing up with the National Guard or Reserves to better their chances of not getting called into the active component and winding up in Iraq. Oregon papers have interviews with two people who say they re-upped into the National Guard against their better judgment because of this deliberate misinformation campaign on the part of members of the Guard's retention program.

An Iowa TV station did a brief spot, reporting:

According to the Army Human Resources Command out of St. Louis inactive soldiers are not being called up at this time. Spokesperson Julia Collins admits that some Retention Non-Commissioned Officers in the field are spreading the misinformation .

Here's what's going on. For the past couple of weeks, the Human Resource Command has been contacting Individual Ready Reserve Soldiers, also known as the IRRS. They are surveying the soldiers to see how much active duty time they have left in their contracts.

At this point Collins says they are only gathering the information. "No decision has been made as to whether or not we would be placing any of these contractually obligated IRRS into Units."

A "Retention Non-Commissioned Officer" is the sergeant in a unit who tries to get you to stay in the army. When I was in and it was my time to go home, they offered a choice of duty stations and (because I was in a perverse mood when I asked for it) a slot in the special POW training school they ran at Ft. Bragg. Anyhow, they're pretty much recruiters for people who are already soldiers, and it sounds like some of them are trying to terrify Inactive Ready Reserve soldiers into committing to National Guard or Army Reserve enlistments to dodge a potential callup and deployment to somewhere like, oh, Iraq.

The Army Times, which is not, despite what some people think, a military organ, says the Army's in the midst of identifying and screening 118,000 IRR soldiers to figure out who's available for callup. The Times has a different spokesperson who's being a little less evasive, or at least softening the blow a little less:

None of the 118,000 IRR soldiers has been called up involuntarily so far, said Lt. Col. Burt Masters, a spokesman for the Army’s Human Resources Command in St. Louis. Some IRR members could be called up once the screening is finished, he said.

And the Oregonian followed up this morning:

Thousands of recent U.S. Army veterans nationwide were told to choose by Monday a new assignment in the Army Reserve or National Guard -- meaning a potential return to active duty -- or the military would decide for them. The Army now says the order was a mistake.

The consequence of the error appears to be a sharp increase in enlistments in Oregon and elsewhere by reservists who feared being assigned a unit without their consent. They face possible deployment to the Middle East.

Also from the Bend Bugle:

"We are proactively contacting unassigned soldiers from the Individual Ready Reserve to show them the benefits of serving with the Oregon Army National Guard," said Lt. Col. Scott Haynes, commander of Army recruiting and retention for the Oregon National Guard.

"We just want to let these service members know that the Guard is an option and for some of them it is a preferable option," Haynes said.

So in other words, a memo went out noting that the Army's conducting a census of soldiers in the Inactive Ready Reserve (that is, soldiers who served some amount of time in the regular, active duty Army or in a Reserve or Guard unit but still owe a period of time under which they're subject to mobilization). Retention specialists in the Guard and Reserves have seized on the non specificity and sloppy execution of the memo to cold-call people in the IRR and tell them they can either come back in to the Guard (helping the retention people meet their monthly warm body quota) or they can take their chances with getting mobilized, assigned to an active, deployable reserve unit (which means they won't be able to duck into a safer Guard assignment), and finding their asses in Iraq.

Says one new member of the Guard who got out of the active component just last year:

"The recruiter said I would have less chance for deployment," he said. "It was my impression that very bad things would happen if I didn't join."

Feel free to characterize this as a clusterfuck:

Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly, commander of the Army Reserve, declined comment on how the mistake was made, a spokesman said. How the mistaken order was issued is a mystery, said Steve Stromvall, the civilian public affairs director for the U.S. Army Reserve Command in Atlanta.

"God only knows at this point where the miscommunication started," he said.

and, worse:

News of the Army's move on ready reserves blindsided senior members of Congress, including John Warner, R-Va., chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee.

Several members of the committee said they were not told of the order, despite being briefed on the Iraq war separately on Tuesday by Vice President Dick Cheney and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

"Not aware of it," Warner told The Oregonian after Cheney met Tuesday with Senate Republicans over lunch. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he also was unaware of the order.

Posted by mph at May 19, 2004 08:18 AM

Comments

Wow!! As an active duty soldier nearing the end of my enlistment after having served 15 months here in Iraq I have been subjected to the same scare tactics used by re-enlistment NCOs as in this story. I was told that if I did not re-enlist while here in Iraq that I would just be sent back here after I was recalled to active duty with the inactive ready reserve. I am horrified by the crookedness of re-enlistment and recruiting personnel. They defile the very values that I have sworn to uphold and hold dear as a US soldier. I am very glad I will not have to be associated with this organization after November. -Ironsoldier7

Posted by: ironsoldier7 at June 3, 2004 12:08 AM

I was also informed of this ploy againt IRR's. I am now on active duty and have 1 month left here at Ft. Sill. I intend on spending the remainder of my IRR in college. I was also told that if a soldier did less than 33 months on active duty status, then he would have to do 14 to 30 days of training with a unit near home every year for the remainder of your IRR. Can anyone help me out here? I've done two years of honorable duty, deployed to Iraq in March 03 with 3rd ID and am ready to get out. If someone has any information that will help my transition go more smoothly concerning the IRR's, please e-mail me. Thanks

Posted by: Phillip Kemp at June 9, 2004 07:27 AM

Hi, Phillip,

Who told you this? Was it your unit retention NCO?

Posted by: mph at June 9, 2004 07:33 AM

phillip kemp is queer.
Like I told many people before. When I get out, I'M GETTING OUT! If the Army wants me back, they can come try to find me somewhere around the world if they want to. But I did my time, let the next man come and do their's

Posted by: italian stallion at June 9, 2004 11:33 AM

Yeah I received a call from an NCO in the Army Reserves who told me I was being called up and my orders would be cut between May 18 and May 31 and was being assigned to unit that was deploying to Iraq this fall. I still haven't received orders although I learned I can be extended beyond my eight year commitment (which ends in Sept. '04.) I also received a call from the National Guard and never gave him the chance to feed me any bullshit, I told him he was too late that the Army reserve had called me up and I would have orders before the end of the month. He really didn't say much after that. I was told do not sign anything extending my service and basicly I'm waiting it out now. Nerve damage in my shoulder will get me medicaly discharded and the Army already fucked up my knee.

Posted by: an IRR Soldier at June 9, 2004 01:49 PM

Yeah I received a call from an NCO in the Army Reserves who told me I was being called up and my orders would be cut between May 18 and May 31 and was being assigned to unit that was deploying to Iraq this fall. I still haven't received orders although I learned I can be extended beyond my eight year commitment (which ends in Sept. '04.) I also received a call from the National Guard and never gave him the chance to feed me any bullshit, I told him he was too late that the Army reserve had called me up and I would have orders before the end of the month. He really didn't say much after that. I was told do not sign anything extending my service and basicly I'm waiting it out now. Nerve damage in my shoulder will get me medicaly discharded and the Army already fucked up my knee.

Posted by: an IRR Soldier at June 9, 2004 01:49 PM

MPH, Yes it was my reserve unit retention NCO

Posted by: Phillip Kemp at June 9, 2004 02:18 PM

I am an IRR soldier that has been called back after getting out of the service 2 years. There are 12 people in my group all are callups none of up volentered. There was a group of seven before us that got ordered back in.

Posted by: Kyle lonie at June 10, 2004 10:07 AM

Hi, Kyle.

What's your MOS? How about the other folks who got called up?

Posted by: mph at June 10, 2004 10:11 AM

I was told the same thing, as was everyone who's left in my unit. This story is far and wide reaching if it is just a story. I wouldn't put anything past the military now, I am so disgusted. The poor leadership, the lack of respect and with each passing move made the inability to trust the very people we're working for. I am sure at this point you are all aware of the stoploss that is most definitely for real, if not check it out, http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1146370/posts
and yeah it's total fucking bullshit. I'd like to get a government link that says this IRR thing is definitely a hoax if that's possible.

Posted by: reservist at June 14, 2004 08:24 PM