Hundreds of thousands of National Guard and Reserve members previously mobilized for tours in Iraq and Afghanistan are exposed anew to involuntary call-up under a policy change unveiled with President Bush’s plan to increase the number of troops in Baghdad.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he has rescinded a 2002 rule that barred involuntary mobilization of reserve personnel beyond a cumulative 24-month ceiling.
But Gates also softened the effect of that decision by capping future involuntary mobilizations at 12 months apiece, including training time. This replaces what has been routine 16- to 24-month mobilizations for most Guard or Reserve members, including a year of “boots on the ground” in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The now-shelved 24-month cumulative rule had been in effect five years, long enough that some Guard and Reserve members, and their families, might have believed it protected against a second call-up.
But Brig. Gen. James W. Nuttall, deputy director of the Army National Guard, said a majority of Guard soldiers will not be surprised by the policy change, given the nature of the wars they’ve experienced firsthand.
“The reality is that most soldiers, having served once in theater, knew that this was going to be a long war and that at some point we were going to have to come back to them,” Nuttall told Military Update.
David Stein of Hesperia, Calif., agreed. The former sergeant first class with the California National Guard returned from a year in Iraq in May 2004. He said the impression left with his unit, based in Riverside, Calif., was that they wouldn’t deploy again for at least two years. That 24-month cumulative rule, if known, wasn’t a policy these soldiers had planned their futures by.
Defense officials, Nuttall said, are weighing a proposal to allow commands to apply stop-loss for up to a year before units deploy. Commands now can block personnel from retiring or separating from service within 90 days before mobilization. Once stop-loss is imposed, soldiers must remain in their units through deployment plus 60 days.
The Army now keeps about 10,000 soldiers in service using stop-loss, said a personnel official.
Nuttall said that out of 350,000 Army National Guard members, roughly 270,000 have deployed since the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001. The Guard couldn’t continue to contribute as effectively to the war effort if the 24-month ceiling on total time mobilized were not removed.
David Chu, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said the cap was imposed in 2002 “to ensure we did not overuse our people.” But the actual law governing mobilizations says only that reservists cannot be mobilized involuntarily for more than 24 “consecutive” months.
In unveiling the surge plan of 17,500 more soldiers into Baghdad and 4,000 more Marines into Anbar Province, Gates also announced strength increases. The active Army is to grow by 65,000. That’s 35,000 soldiers atop a 30,000 temporary increase phased in since 2004. The Marine Corps is to grow by 27,000, the Army National Guard by 8,000 and the Army Reserve by 1,000.
Gates also wants to pay members who are forced to deploy early or to extend their deployments beyond rotation standards an extra $1,000 a month. Details on eligibility are still being worked out.
Chu said the payments should go to “those whose expectations we seriously violate” rather than to members who depart a day early or who are delayed a day returning home.
“I don’t think any of our people believes, nor do I think the American taxpayers believe, we should suddenly give you some big compensation for that,” Chu said.
To comment, write Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120-1111, e-mail milupdate@aol.com or visit www.militaryupdate.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
