CLOSING THE GAP
By Minnick, Fred | |
Proquest LLC |
Outdated perceptions of Reserve service have created very real gaps in support
Once upon a time, active duty personnel considered the Reserve Component (RC) soft and undisciplined. Reservists were often compared to weekend paint bailers and were nearly universally denigrated by civilians and active duty alike.
This Reserve disdain can be pinpointed to America's post-
The Total Force received widespread criticism, ranging from the
The notion of the Reserves as an ill-trained force culminated on the big screen in 1982 with Rambo, the story of a troubled former Green Beret still fighting his
An indelible symbol of Reserve unpreparedness, that scene became a tough reputation to live down. Despite proving itself over and over again on the battlefield since Desert Storm, the RC has been fighting that perception ever since. The effect has created a gap that has been felt in everything from federal funding inequities to stealth job discrimination.
Eliminating the Doubts
In the 1980's, preparing for the inevitable call-up, Reserve leadership tightened physical fitness requirements and weapon qualifications, upgraded equipment, and improved training exercises and combat readiness.
And then
In fear of political fallout, military leaders did not think civilians would allow Reservists to be called up for war in large numbers, said
"I was a totally neutral participant from a standpoint [that] I had no ax to grind either way, but I had been arguing that we've been paying for the Total Force policy for all those years,"
The president activated more than 228,000 RC service members, who served admirably and quelled many negative perceptions of the Reserve.
"Reservists activated to support forces during Desert Storm validated the Total Force concept," wrote Admiral
The Reserve strategy would be tested again when President
Throughout the most recent wars, the RC provided the majority of the chemical brigades; medical groups; judge advocate general and railway units; civil affairs, public affairs, and water supply battalions; as well as significant enforcements in combat units. Nearly 1 million RC troops have been activated under the Total Force call-up.
No longer a pariah, the Reserve became the operational backbone of the U.S. armed forces.
"We as a military have come to the realization that we can't fight an extended conflict without the Reserve," said Lieutenant General
No Honor in the Halls of Leadership
In combat, the RC servicemen and -women served as admirably and efficiently as their active duty brothers and sisters at arms. But when it comes to congressional and
"When the
"Members of
Thus, while the
The Fight
"The Reserve gets paid a lot of lip service," said Major General
It's not that leadership doesn't recognize the genuine value of the Reserve; they know that the RC is a critical asset in the arsenal of America's defense. They know the Reserve costs American taxpayers roughly 31 percent of the life-cycle costs for active duty troops.
The glazed-over look that often follows mention of the RC comes from a lack of understanding, the result of a deeply engrained perception gap that Reservists are secondclass warriors.
"Too often, we have to scrap for a seat at the table," said
And that's just among leadership in
ROA emphasizes the importance of a united voice in bridging these gaps in understanding. "Part of the confusion comes from just how complex serving in a Reserve status can be,"
If the difference between Title 10 and Title 32 isn't enough to confuse the average audience, Reservists also have 31 different duty statuses in which they can serve. "Start breaking down the difference between the Individual Ready Reserve and the Retired Ready Reserve, and now you're fracturing your base," he said.
As ROA endeavors to bridge this gap in the post-war years, establishing a comprehensive identity for the Reserve community is a top priority.
"We all served in such distinct capacities, we don't want to gloss over anyone's individual service," said
But a history of misconceptions and dramatic changes in service over the last decade has resulted in a disparate identity that puts the power of that influence at risk. On the Hill, ROA is working to change that. "We've put real strain on our Reservists over the last 13 years of war, and the needs of this community are more distinct than ever,"
Gaps in perception have real consequences, and ROA has identified key areas in which Reservists find themselves undersupported compared to their active duty counterparts. Issues ranging from compensation, benefits, and the supply of necessary equipment for the Reserve force to family support, health care continuity, and stealth job discrimination faced by individual RC members threaten to leave this generation of Citizen Warriors out in the cold.
Gaps in the Force
As a force, ROA says, the RC is often seen as a bill payer in times of fiscal constraint. On issues ranging from compensation to end-strength, the Reserve force faces cuts that threaten the future of its operability.
In the last two years, ROA has been especially disconcerted over a proposal to restructure the Reserve compensation system. The result, according to ROA, would essentially be a 50 percent cut in drill pay.
The idea first took shape with the
If the commission upholds the recommendations of the QRMC, the impact on Reserve recruiting and retention could be devastating.
"The volunteer Citizen Warrior will vote with his or her feet,"
Sequestration has already taken a toll on the strength and readiness of the Reserve force. With the
Add to this mix the potential for infighting over equipment and upgrades, and the force faces some serious modernization challenges. ROA addresses these critical issues in its advocacy efforts on a daily basis.
Families on Their Own
While ROA is a strong presence on
The 2004 Quadrennial Quality of Life Review (QQLR) noted that abrupt RC deployment shorted spouses on the time they needed to resolve dependent care, legal, health coverage, and financial issues. This may seem superficial to some, but they represent leading indicators for a growing trend in marital problems for Reservists. The limited availability of support contributed to an increase of marital problems among RC members from 37 percent in 2006 to 44 percent in 2008.
The 2009 QQLR continued to show a lack of Reserve family support, saying the government must reach out to local communities to augment support programs that meet the needs of deployed service member families. In 2011, that issue remained unaddressed; the
This spring, a new survey published by 7he
ROA points to numbers like these as a prime example of a population overlooked during the most critical years of wartime support. While resources for active duty troops have expanded through targeted research and tailored solutions, Reservists have often been lumped into active duty support programs in what ROA calls a "one-size-fits-all mentality."
Though the military has a host of tools and resources to assist troops and their families, Reservists-nearly half of our service members-don't fit the mold these resources were designed to serve.
The Health Care Maze
The military's health care coverage is another area designed primarily to meet the needs of active duty service, and Reservist families often face significant challenges. Unlike active duty, Reserve health care is far from seamless. While active duty personnel remain in the military health program throughout their careers-with family members having a choice of Tricare Prime or Tricare Standard-RC members must make health care choices through different stages of their career that can lead to gaps in coverage.
When activated for more than 30 days, Reserve or Guard members are in the military health program, but they have to re-enroll their family in
Captain
Similar to the issue of spousal support, mental health care gaps-left unchecked for nearly a decade-are yielding troubling statistics. After the
ROA reported on this trend last year in a special to The Officer, citing, among other bellwethers, statistics from a 2012 issue of the
* Reservists who had deployed reported higher rates of suicidal thoughts and attempts than active duty personnel who had also been deployed.
* Among Reservists, Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) or Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) service was associated with higher levels of family stress and symptoms of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and poor mental health, limiting normal activities.
* Significantly more Reservists who served in OIF or OEF showed PTSD symptoms, compared with active duty personnel.
Earlier this year, ROA came out in support of the Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Prevention Act of 2014. A bipartisan bill sponsored by Sen.
In a statement, ROA noted the act's provisions for parity across services and components:
"The staggering rate of suicide among members of America's Reserve and Guard is the result of a 'one size fits all' mentality of prevention. Reserve service carries unique burdens, and the challenges of post-deployment life and civilian transition are largely misunderstood by a public weary of war and a
The Challenge of Stealth Discrimination
The gap doesn't stop when Reservists take off the uniform. As civilians, Citizen Warriors also endure ongoing employment challenges.
Those challenges frequently are overlooked by those enforcing the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). The most notable case went all the way to the
In 2004,
According to court records, the hospital scheduled shifts without notice as payback for the department having to work around SFC Staub's Reserve training schedule. His supervisor called his Reserve military duties "bullshit" and scheduled him to work on Reserve duty weekends, forcing him to use vacation time. Even the department head expressed animosity toward SFC Staub for his Reserve duties.
A jury awarded damages to SFC Staub for unlawful discrimination, but the hospital appealed to the
With the help of
"We ... hold that if a supervisor performs an act motivated by antimilitary animus that is intended by the supervisor to cause an adverse employment action, and if that act is a proximate cause of the ultimate employment action, then the employer is liable under USERRA,"
Since 2004, the
In the 2012 USERRA report to
In March, at the
LT Savage testified that
LT Savage further testified that
The
"This doesn't have to be the end of the story," LT Savage testified. "It has become clear to me that certain legislative actions can and must be taken to help protect service members and their families."
After serving our country and protecting our freedoms, it is vital that our Reservists receive the support they need and have earned. This is the message that ROA sends every day to leaders on
"WE AS A MILITARY HAVE COME TO THE REALIZATION THAT WE CAN'T FIGHT AN EXTENDED CONFLICT WITHOUT THE RESERVE."
-Lieutenant General
The Facts
* Of the 2.3 million men and women in uniformed service today, 1.1 million are Reservists and Guardsmen.
* 883,000 Reservists have been mobilized and deployed forward since 9/11.
* 330,000 have been mobilized more than once.
* Veteran unemployment is about 7 percent, just a tick above the national rate, but Reserve unemployment for 18- to 25-year-olds is three times that figure, due in part to stealth discrimination by prospective employers who know that the Reserve employee will go out the door one year out of five or six, even in the post-Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom future.
* 43 percent of serving Reservists have children, and they go to schools in the cities, suburbs, and hamlets of America. Their teachers and administrators have no idea that they are Reserve kids and how to react when the Reserve parent deploys for a year.
* Reservists, when they retire, do not see a retirement check until age 60, let alone a 2 percent cost-of-living adjustment annually from age 40 to 62, of which the reduction by half is causing such heartburn in
* Tricare Reserve Select is an excellent, but woefully underutiized, health insurance program (just 25 percent of eligible Reservists enroll). Upon mobilization, Reservists are disenrolled from TRS and must re-enroll in Tricare Standard, only to be bumped from Standard upon deactivation-and they are completely disenrolled upon phasing to the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), however temporary the IRR stint might be.
* More than 300,000 Reservists who have served honorably and have retired without serving 180 days of consecutive active duty are not considered veterans by law.
* When active duty service members end their active service, they're done. When Reservists end their active service, they return home and continue to serve.
Reaching Out to Reserve Kids
Members of the military serve our country to protect the freedoms of all American children. It's only right that as a nation, we help take care of their children when they are deployed. The children of active duty service members have strong support from teachers and classmates who know what they're going through.
That's often not the case for members of the RC; 75 percent of Reserve families live at least 25 miles from the nearest military base. Their children attend school systems that do not serve many military families; teachers and staff often don't recognize the attention difficulties, mood swings, sadness, and school problems as symptoms of deployment-related stress. And with good reason: Virtually no dedicated research has been done into the unique impacts of deployment and service on children of Reservists.
With the aid of corporate partners and individual donors, the
A Ready Source of Help
Reserve duty carries unique obligations. Likewise, it places a unique burden on civilian employers. Laws are on the books to defend a Reservist's right to reemployment, but after 13 years of mobilizations, Reservists such as
Copyright: | (c) 2014 Reserve Officers Association |
Wordcount: | 4277 |
Advisor News
Annuity News
Health/Employee Benefits News
Life Insurance News