DoD Prepares to Implement Reserve Changes

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DoD Prepares to Implement Reserve Changes
November 25, 2008
American Forces Press Service|by Fred W. Baker III

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates charged his department to develop plans to take action on 64 of the 95 recommendations for changes to the U.S. military reserves made by a congressionally mandated commission earlier this year.

The department already has acted on 18 of the recommendations made in January by the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, which was convened in 2004 to review and recommend changes needed to move the reserve-component force from a Cold War-era strategic reserve to an operational reserve fully integrated with its active-duty counterparts.

In all, the department is working to implement 82 of the 95 recommendations. Gates referred two of the recommendations to other Cabinet departments, and he chose not to act on 11 of the recommendations.

“The Congress, the commission and the department all recognized that the National Guard and Reserves are integral to the total force and have assumed a greater operational role in today’s force,” Gates wrote in a memorandum he signed yesterday. “The department greatly appreciates the support of Congress and the diligence of the commission for its comprehensive review and recommendations for improving the National Guard and Reserve.”

After the release of the commission’s report in January, Gates convened a senior-level working group to review the recommendations and render its findings. These proposed actions come from the recommendations of that group, officials said.


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