Reserve component

A reserve component of the United States military is an organization of servicemembers who generally perform a minimum of 39 days of military duty per year and who augment the active duty (or full time) military when necessary. The reserve components are also referred to collectively as “the Guard and Reserves”.

Contents

1 Reserve Components 2 Purpose 3 General Information 4 Reserve Component Categories 5 Mobilization 6 References

Reserve Components

The seven reserve components of the U.S. military are:

1. Army National Guard of the United States
2. Army Reserve
3. Navy Reserve
4. Marine Corps Reserve
5. Air National Guard of the United States
6. Air Force Reserve
7. Coast Guard Reserve

Purpose

According to 10 USC 10102, the purpose of each reserve component is to provide trained units and qualified persons available for active duty in the armed forces, in time of war or national emergency, and at such other times as the national security may require, to fill the needs of the armed forces whenever, during and after the period needed to procure and train additional units and qualified persons to achieve the planned mobilization, more units and persons are needed than are in the regular components.

General Information

The reserve components are the embodiment of the American tradition of the citizen-soldier dating back to before the Revolutionary War. They are regionally based and recruited (unlike their active duty counterparts) and, in the case of the Army and Air National Guard, are the organized state militias referred to in the U.S. Constitution. Members of the reserve components are generally required to perform, at a minimum, 39 days of military service per year. This includes monthly drill weekends and fifteen days of annual training (giving rise to the old slogan “one weekend a month, two weeks a year”).

While organized, trained, and equipped nearly the same as the active duty, the reserve components often have unique characteristics. This is especially true of the National Guard, which performs both federal and state missions. In addition, reserve components often operate under special laws, regulations, and policies.

Reserve Component Categories

All members of a reserve component are assigned to one of three reserve component categories:

• The Ready Reserve is comprised of military members of the Reserve and National Guard, organized in units or as individuals, liable for recall to active duty to augment the active components in time of war or national emergency. The Ready Reserve consists of three reserve component subcategories:
  • The Selected Reserve consist of those units and individuals within the Ready Reserve designated by their respective Services and approved by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as so essential to initial wartime missions that they have priority over all other Reserves. The Selected Reserve consists of additional sub-subcategories:
    • Drilling Reservists in Units are trained unit members who participate in unit training activities on a part-time basis.
    • Training Pipeline (non-deployable account) personnel are enlisted members of the Selected Reserve who have not yet complete initial active duty for training (IADT) and officers who are in training for professional categories or in undergraduate flying training.
    • Individual Mobilization Augmentees (IMAs) are trained individuals assigned to an active component, Selective Service System, or Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) organization’s billet which must be filled on or shortly after mobilization. IMAs participate in training activities on a part-time basis with an active component unit in preparation for recall in a mobilization.
    • Active Guard/Reserve (AGR) are National Guard or Reserve members of the Selected Reserve who are ordered to active duty or full-time National Guard duty for the purpose of organizing, administering, recruiting, instructing, or training the reserve component units.
  • Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) personnel provide a manpower pool comprised principally of individuals having had training, having previously served in an active duty component or in the Selected Reserve, and having some period of their military service obligation (MSO) remaining.
  • Inactive National Guard (ING) are National Guard personnel in an inactive status in the Ready Reserve, not in the Selected Reserve, attached to a specific National Guard unity, who are required to muster once a year with their assigned unit but do not participate in training activities. On mobilization, ING members mobilize with their units.
• The Standby Reserve consists of personnel who maintain their affiliation without being in the Ready Reserve, who have been designated key civilian employees, or who have a temporary hardship or disability. They are not required to perform training and are not part of units but create a pool of trained individuals who could be mobilized if necessary to fill manpower needs in specific skills.
  • Active Status List are those Standby Reservists temporarily assigned for hardship or other cogent reason; those not having fulfilled their military service obligation or those retained in active status when provided for by law; or those members of Congress and others identified by their employers as “key personnel” and who have been removed from the Ready Reserve because they are critical to the national security in their civilian employment.
  • Inactive Status List are those Standby Reservists who are not required by law or regulation to remain in an active program and who retain their Reserve affiliation in a nonparticipating status, and those who have skills which may be of possible future use to the Armed Force concerned.
• The Retired Reserve consists of all Reserve officers and enlisted personnel who receive retired pay on the basis of active duty and/or reserve service; all Reserve officers and enlisted personnel who are otherwise eligible for retired pay but have not reached age 60, who have not elected discharge, and are not voluntary members of the Ready or Standby Reserve; and other retired reservists under certain conditions.

Mobilization

Individual servicemembers or entire units of the reserve components may be called into active duty (also referred to as mobilized, activated, or called up), under several conditions.

• Full Mobilization requires a declaration of war or national emergency by the Congress, affects all reservists (including those on inactive status and retired members), and may last until six months after the war or emergency for which it was declared.
• Partial Mobilization requires a declaration of national emergency, affects only the Ready Reserve, and is limited to a maximum of one million personnel activated for no more than two years.
• Presidential Reserve Call-Ups do not require a declaration of national emergency but require the President to notify Congress and is limited to 200,000 Selected Reservists and 30,000 Individual Ready Reservists for up to 270 days.
• The 15-Day Statute allows individual service secretaries to call up the Ready Reserves for up to 15 days per year for annual training or operational missions.
• RC Volunteers may request to go on active duty regardless of their reserve component category, but the state governors must approve activating National Guard personnel

References

This article incorporates text from the following sources:

1. Title 10, Subtitle E of the United States Code
2. Reserves 101
3. Reserve Component Categories of the Armed Forces

See also: Reserve component, Active duty, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Congress, Federal Emergency Management Agency, National security, One weekend a month, two weeks a year, President of the United States, Revolutionary War, Selective Service