thedrifter
12-19-06, 01:15 PM
December 25, 2006
Schoomaker pushes to ase reserve call-up estrictions
By Gordon Lubold and Rick Maze
Staff writers
More reservists and perhaps members of the National Guard could find themselves headed to Iraq if a senior military official gets his way.
Gen. Peter Schoomaker, Army chief of staff, wants the Pentagon’s senior civilian leaders to alter long-standing policies to ease restrictions on the services’ ability to mobilize their reserve-component forces.
While Schoomaker is talking only about the Army Reserve and Army National Guard, defense officials acknowledge there is a debate underway in the Pentagon that pits personnel officials worried about deployment stress against operational commanders concerned about the rotation cycle of deployed units.
Policies on frequency and duration of mobilizations vary among the services and their reserve components. The Marine Corps Reserve, for example, limits mobilizations for any one member to 24 cumulative months in any five-year period. Other reserve components follow their own guidelines.
The change Schoomaker is pushing, outlined Dec. 14 in testimony to the Commission on the National Guard and Reserve, would allow the Army, and potentially the other services, to tap their reserve forces for active duty on a far more regular basis.
The proposal is a stark acknowledgment that almost four years into the Iraq war, the manpower pool for that conflict is growing increasingly thin, particularly among some of the reserve components, where many people have hit or are nearing their 24-month mobilization cap.
The proposal clearly would have the greatest impact on the Army, which had 77,099 Army National Guard and Army Reserve troops mobilized on active duty as of Dec. 13. But it could have a potential ripple effect on the other services as well.
The Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve had a combined 5,741 people mobilized as of Dec. 13. The Marine Corps Reserve had 5,716; the Navy Reserve 4,938; and the Coast Guard Reserve 363.
The change sought by Schoomaker — which could easily raise cries of “broken promises” from reservists and their advocacy groups and raise fears of retention problems in the reserve components — is being stiffly resisted by senior Pentagon civilians, particularly personnel chief David S.C. Chu.
Chu, who testified before the commission a day earlier, said a war is underway in the Defense Department between personnel officials who want to stick with current guidelines limiting the length and frequency of mobilizations and deployments on one hand, and operations personnel who want more flexibility on the other.
Schoomaker said it is time to pull mobilization policies out of the last century — and warned that failing to do so could break the force.
His main argument for the change is that it is needed to minimize what the military calls “cross-leveling,” in which a commander patches together a unit by drawing individuals from a number of locales.
“We want to mobilize units, the unit that’s there with its flag, with its commander, with its leadership, with its soldiers, we want it to stay together,” he said.
Much of the cross-leveling process is done on a volunteer basis, where individuals agree to serve in a unit. Schoomaker’s proposal change would introduce a large involuntary element into the way units are identified and sent overseas.
Retired Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro, chairman of the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, agreed with Schoomaker about the drawbacks of cross-leveling.
The day before Schoomaker testified, Punaro — who commanded the 4th Marine Division, the ground combat element of the Marine Corps Reserve, from 1997 to 2000 — called cross-leveling “evil” and said it may be the cause of some casualties in Iraq because it diminishes the cohesion that develops when units train together the way they will fight together.
Punaro said he knows of an Army unit that was stitched together with people from 40 states, and a Marine unit from people based in 21 cities.
“I would not want to go into combat in command of a unit that looks like it was put together like a patchwork quilt,” he said.
Schoomaker and other defense officials have argued for the change for some time, but their push has been stifled by Chu. With the arrival of Robert Gates to succeed Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary, Schoomaker likely sees a new opportunity to press his views.
Ellie
Schoomaker pushes to ase reserve call-up estrictions
By Gordon Lubold and Rick Maze
Staff writers
More reservists and perhaps members of the National Guard could find themselves headed to Iraq if a senior military official gets his way.
Gen. Peter Schoomaker, Army chief of staff, wants the Pentagon’s senior civilian leaders to alter long-standing policies to ease restrictions on the services’ ability to mobilize their reserve-component forces.
While Schoomaker is talking only about the Army Reserve and Army National Guard, defense officials acknowledge there is a debate underway in the Pentagon that pits personnel officials worried about deployment stress against operational commanders concerned about the rotation cycle of deployed units.
Policies on frequency and duration of mobilizations vary among the services and their reserve components. The Marine Corps Reserve, for example, limits mobilizations for any one member to 24 cumulative months in any five-year period. Other reserve components follow their own guidelines.
The change Schoomaker is pushing, outlined Dec. 14 in testimony to the Commission on the National Guard and Reserve, would allow the Army, and potentially the other services, to tap their reserve forces for active duty on a far more regular basis.
The proposal is a stark acknowledgment that almost four years into the Iraq war, the manpower pool for that conflict is growing increasingly thin, particularly among some of the reserve components, where many people have hit or are nearing their 24-month mobilization cap.
The proposal clearly would have the greatest impact on the Army, which had 77,099 Army National Guard and Army Reserve troops mobilized on active duty as of Dec. 13. But it could have a potential ripple effect on the other services as well.
The Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve had a combined 5,741 people mobilized as of Dec. 13. The Marine Corps Reserve had 5,716; the Navy Reserve 4,938; and the Coast Guard Reserve 363.
The change sought by Schoomaker — which could easily raise cries of “broken promises” from reservists and their advocacy groups and raise fears of retention problems in the reserve components — is being stiffly resisted by senior Pentagon civilians, particularly personnel chief David S.C. Chu.
Chu, who testified before the commission a day earlier, said a war is underway in the Defense Department between personnel officials who want to stick with current guidelines limiting the length and frequency of mobilizations and deployments on one hand, and operations personnel who want more flexibility on the other.
Schoomaker said it is time to pull mobilization policies out of the last century — and warned that failing to do so could break the force.
His main argument for the change is that it is needed to minimize what the military calls “cross-leveling,” in which a commander patches together a unit by drawing individuals from a number of locales.
“We want to mobilize units, the unit that’s there with its flag, with its commander, with its leadership, with its soldiers, we want it to stay together,” he said.
Much of the cross-leveling process is done on a volunteer basis, where individuals agree to serve in a unit. Schoomaker’s proposal change would introduce a large involuntary element into the way units are identified and sent overseas.
Retired Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro, chairman of the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, agreed with Schoomaker about the drawbacks of cross-leveling.
The day before Schoomaker testified, Punaro — who commanded the 4th Marine Division, the ground combat element of the Marine Corps Reserve, from 1997 to 2000 — called cross-leveling “evil” and said it may be the cause of some casualties in Iraq because it diminishes the cohesion that develops when units train together the way they will fight together.
Punaro said he knows of an Army unit that was stitched together with people from 40 states, and a Marine unit from people based in 21 cities.
“I would not want to go into combat in command of a unit that looks like it was put together like a patchwork quilt,” he said.
Schoomaker and other defense officials have argued for the change for some time, but their push has been stifled by Chu. With the arrival of Robert Gates to succeed Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary, Schoomaker likely sees a new opportunity to press his views.
Ellie