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Reservists: A Year of Plummeting Morale By Paul Connors If there is one thing that leaders in the U.S. military’s active component are correct about (and always have been) when they talk about the National Guard – and to a lesser extent, the reserves – is that there is far too much “politics” in the way local units are run. From cronyism, nepotism, corruption and retaliation against people who speak up, the Guard and reserves have earned the enmity of many of their own members. Since the beginning of the war on terror immediately after 9/11, when the various services began wholesale call-ups of Guard and reserve units, the vast majority of the individuals who comprise these units have unfalteringly stepped forward and performed with professionalism, patriotism and enthusiasm as they embraced the mission - protecting the homeland. In response, too many of these dedicated people have suffered from poor leadership and unfair personnel policies that have caused them personal stress and financial suffering. The past 12 months, for them, have been a year of plummeting morale. Initially, the Air Force issued a general “stop-loss” order that prevented almost every member from leaving the service. That order included people who had previously established retirement dates as well as those whose obligated service had ended and who had decided to leave the military. The order trickled down to the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard as well. Over time, as the Air Force began to unclog its personnel management system, stop-loss has been lifted from almost every career field. However, a few remained and the irony is, most of the personnel affected are members of the ANG and Air Force Reserve Command. While the active Air Force finally permitted its security forces personnel to separate and retire, the Secretary of the Air Force announced that approximately 14,000 reserve component personnel will be involuntarily retained on active duty for another year. Many of these reserve component security forces personnel have served continuously since 9/11 while others have deployed to CONUS bases and overseas to support the active-duty mission. Over the last several months, a number of security personnel have written to DefenseWatch magazine, and the general tone of these letters and Feedback emails depicts a significant decline in morale – especially those who left home to backfill active-duty units at stateside bases from which the regular Air Force security forces did not deploy. One of the significant recurring comments was that ANG and AFRC security forces personnel have been called in to backfill at bases where active duty members are now permitted to separate or retire. Additionally, active duty personnel are working normal workdays, while ANG and AFRC members are working 12-14- hour days with little respite. Worse, active-duty base commanders have made almost no effort to utilize security augmentees, and non-security personnel have gone about their everyday work schedules as if 9/11 never happened. At many ANG and AFRC bases where security forces have deployed, non-security forces trained personnel have voluntarily stepped in to guard base personnel, facilities and assets while their security troops are employed elsewhere. These are usually traditional Guardsmen and reservists with families and civilian careers that they have placed on the back burner to help their units complete the mission. The same is true for most security forces personnel. Most are part-timers with lives outside the gate. Many of these same people are law enforcement professionals in civilian lives, and their call-ups have placed additional stress on many local police departments that in turn must backfill to make up for the lost officers now on active duty. For some police departments such as in New York, Los Angeles or Chicago, where thousands of officers are on the payroll, a few call-ups here and there are more readily absorbed. This is not the case for smaller departments with rosters of only 10-15 police officers, where loss of one or two members to an activation has a serious impact on those remaining behind. After almost a year of active duty, and with no end in sight, ANG and AFRC security forces personnel have started to question the need for their continued presence on active duty, whether it be at home station, somewhere else in CONUS or overseas. Some have gone so far as to question why the active component Security Forces haven't deployed more and why active-duty bases don't make more widespread use of augmentees. Some have suggested that fence-line patrols be conducted by Army mechanized infantry or cavalry units that have the training and equipment to provide that type of force protection. After all, Air Force security forces are the Air Force's “light infantry,” especially when carrying out their base ground-defense role. Security personnel who have personally contacted DefenseWatch magazine have also revealed instances where individuals within ANG and AFRC units have been retaliated against for questioning the continuing need for extended active duty, especially at bases where they guard only empty ramps because the unit's aircraft have been deployed elsewhere. In one ANG security forces squadron, there hasn't been a re-enlistment or voluntary extension since March of this year. Every member scheduled to separate or retire was involuntarily extended. To add insult to injury, these same members have often had to suffer both the additional hardships created by loss of civilian incomes, which are generally larger, and the attendant pay problems that often arise with the call-ups of Guard and reserve personnel. One member of a Guard unit revealed to this writer that he received only base pay and has yet to see his basic allowance for housing. His bank doesn't seem to care: It wants to know when he'll catch up on his mortgage payments. So much for the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act. Then there are the local unit commanders who volunteer their units for more and more missions without giving due and proper consideration to the people who have to continue to sacrifice while active-duty personnel leave the service at the first available opportunity. These same officers, many seeking to enhance their own promotional and career opportunities, seem clueless that their enlisted personnel are suffering large personal hardships for missions of questionable value and need. When one or two speak up, they then suffer harassment, poor assignments, loss of promotions and even less-desirable deployments. This is a system that had its beginnings in the wholesale force reductions that started with the President George H.W. Bush and continued with a vengeance under the Clinton administration. Unfortunately, these reductions will continue under the current administration, where Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld apparently has decided that all these people cost money and if they dump people, they can then buy all the smart weapons they want to kill our enemies. Left unaddressed is the issue of what the Pentagon can or will do to lessen the crushing workload on those who remain after it slices and dices what's left of our armed forces. From what we at DefenseWatch have been hearing and reading, the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard will soon be facing a retention crisis of almost monumental proportions. While security forces people – as just one example – have been the most vocal in their cries for assistance and criticisms of poorly-planned and executed activations and deployments, other career fields will soon feel the heat as well. There are just so many times people can be up-rooted from their families and civilian careers. There is just so much that employers will put up with when they continue to lose the same people over and over again for ill-conceived missions. But for unit commanders to doubt the patriotism and honor of people who question the events that affect their personal lives, is the epitome of institutional arrogance and hubris. The same members who are seeing their concerns go unanswered or who are bullied and harassed are the same people the Guard and reserve have counted on to re-enlist. It is this group of people who will leave at the first opportunity. The commanders of these units need to carry out their assigned missions, but they also need to consider the lives of the people asked to make all of that possible. The Air Force desperately needs to fix its broken personnel management system so that AFRC and ANG units are not abused so that active duty people can ETS or retire. Commanders who retaliate need to be relieved immediately, as soon as Inspectors General verify the abuses. And Secretary Rumsfeld and his leadership team really needs to re-think additional large-scale force cuts, because those in the field will confirm that the U.S. military today is dangerously overstretched as it is. Anti-war activists during the Vietnam era had a saying, “Suppose they gave a war, and nobody came?” It is not unpatriotic to warn that this well may be the unhappy legacy of those responsible for creating the unprecedented morale crisis now undermining the integrity of the reserve component.