In mid-July, a rather normal letter from the White House delivered at an awkward time about the authorization to activate 3,000 reservists to support operations in Europe enabling aid to Ukraine got everyone's attention.
The reaction has a lot of reservists from all services and National Guardsmen cracking a little smile because even with the wars of most of this century are past, here has been no rest for reservists and the "Total Force."
To discuss what the US military's reservists have been doing in Ukraine for almost a decade and how they are being used now in Europe and elsewhere will be returning guest to Midrats for the full hour this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern, Chris Rawley, Captain, USNR (Ret.).
Chris recently retired from a 30-year Naval Reserve career as a Surface Warfare Officer where he deployed to the Persian Gulf, Western Pacific, Iraq, Afghanistan, and across Africa. Chris is the founder and CEO of Harvest Returns, a platform for bringing farmers and ranchers together with investors.
You can get the podcast of the conversation here or at the below.
The Navy SELRES are rapidly moving away from the IA model towards training members to mobilize to their RUAD billet in order to support their Active Component (a majority of whom are in the INDOPACOM AOR). This means that the IA jobs in EUCOM will mostly fall to the Army and Air Force in the future....or IRR members if the DOD is really hurting for people.
I think it was the 300 Inactive Reserve members being called up that caused most of the freaking out.