Reserve Seeks to 'Balance the Force'

[unhappycamper]

Reserve Seeks to 'Balance the Force'
December 15, 2009
Army News Service|by Kayla Munro

ARLINGTON, Va. - The Army Reserve has increased its ranks by 20,000 and continues to meet its recruiting goals, but there are some gaps that remain unfilled in mid-level ranks and different specialties.

Shortages exist particularly among mid-level commissioned and noncommissioned officers. The force is short on captains, majors and sergeants first class, but has a surplus of colonels and sergeants major, said Brig. Gen. Leslie A. Purser, the Army Reserve's deputy chief.

Purser said she is working to ensure the Army Reserve has the right force for the right missions.

"We want to make sure we have the right Soldier in the right place at the right time," she said. "We have to make sure we can balance it across the force."

In order to accomplish that balance, Purser said the Army Reserve must target prior-service Soldiers more than those without any service.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/army-news/reserve-seeks-to-balance-the-force.html?col=1186032325324

[C_Lawyer09]

1. I highly doubt Purser has spent any time as a Recruiter

The little pearl of wisdom she shares, is exactly what the Reserve Recruiters have been doing for the last five years. What has made the biggest negative impact in reserve recruitment is an economy in which family members are striving for full time employment, versus the former big draw of the Reserves, which was help with college money. Secondly, misrepresentation by the National Guard Recruitment effort, by way of the active first program hits Reserve Recruiting hard. The Reserve and National Guard should be consolidated and given one collective mission, versus playing against eachother. Especially since the post 9/11 environment has largely changed the guard mission (for better or worse)from the quasi state militia they used to be. Lastly, the ASVAB test requirements are silly. For example, there are several "hands on" types that fail to achieve the usually requisite score of 31 Armed Forces Qualification test (AFQT) score which is basically math and verbal skills. While many of the aformentioned achieve super high scores under the the specific aptitude categories such as: Mechanical Maintenance, Electrical, General Mechanical, sometimes even Skilled Technical and/or Science and technology or clerical/office, though not usually. During my time as a Recruiter I was surprised at what a non-sensical entity the enlistment process is. More than two thirds of the Reserve Soldiers the offices I worked at recruited, came back later, wanting to go active. The problem is, that unit commanders usually won't release them as they used to.