The Kansas Army National Guard Marketing versus the Active Duty and reserve components
The Kansas Army National Guard Marketing versus the Active Duty and reserve components
Abstract
The reserve components of the army are among the nation’s highly sensitive institutions which traces back to the colonial times in America. The military force during the 17thcentury was relatively simple but the organization has undergone tremendous changes which have made the institutions to be highly complex based on the membership conditions, their mission, roles and how the intuitions are interrelated. The current state of the modern reserve is something totally different from what it was in the past. This paper aims at presenting a critical analysis of how the reserve component markets itself in terms of how it recruits its enlistees, the demographic, recruitments advertisings and budget cost. These aspects will be analyzed in relation to how the reserve component differs or is similar with those of the active duty and the Army National Guard Marketing.
introduction
Active duty refers to an occupation in the military force where one serves full time. This is different from the reserve duty where the personnel working in the military units are not at the first stage committed to fight in any battle. The military reserve forms the reserve component that includes the strategic reserve, tactical reserve, and the military reserve. The personals working in the military component are assigned the duty of addressing any unforeseen situation and quickly exploited and opportunities are foreseen. They are depended upon to defend against any possible attack coming from the enemies. the army reserve of today is an establishment which is made from the two institutions which are Army Reserve and the Army National Guard. The army reserve has a total number of about two million individuals who have different skills and roles. Despite the fact that almost all the reservists are part of a specific unit, they do not actually exclusively belong to that specific unit because they constantly trained to take various roles. Most of them work as part time soldiers and are also citizens but a larger number of the reservists form the full time cadre. the reservists are called up through presidential discretion some are mobilized by the Congress. This is especially during war time and in national emergencies who as reinforcement.
The reserve components of the United States Armed forces
The United States Army reservists fall under then Army Reserve or the national Guard category. The reservists are not on retired rolls. The control of the army reserve is done by the federal government while the army National Guard is under the state governors and also in cases of various federal purposes where the authorities are given by the Congress or the president. The United States armed forces has the reserve components which are the military organizations with members performing their military duty in a minimum of 39 days each year and during the other time they can take up their active duties in serving the military force full time. In a collective term, the reserve component is referred to as the Reserves or the Guard. Currently the US army reserve components are eight in total. These components are the Navy Reserve, the Army Reserve, the Marine Corps Reserves, and the Army National Guard of the United States. The Coast Guard Reserve, the United States Public Health service Reserve corps and the Air National Guard of the United States. The Air National Guard of the United States and the Army National Guard of the United States are manly under the National Guard of the United States. Other civilian auxiliaries which are part of the US military are not part of the reserve components but work hand in hand with the reserve personnel in wartime and during peace time. These are the Coast Guard an auxiliary to the coast Guard, the civil air patrol which is auxiliary to the air force, the navy’s auxiliary which is the Merchant Marine and the military Auxiliary Radio system.
The merchant marine during the war times take up the role of uninformed police services and this makes them to acquire their veteran status. The naval militia as well as the state guards is not part of the reserve components mainly because they are not recognized federally despite of them taking up their military roles. The states main militia force is the national Guard is the appointed body which is federally recognizes in being the reserve military force. The sate governors give the consent of their recognition making them become a member of the United States National Guard (Laurent, 2005, 20-51). The main purpose of the reserve component according to 10 USC § 10102 is to provide qualified personnel and trained units to take up the active duty in serving the armed during periods of national emergency and in times of war and in any other time which they may be required to provide national security. The reserve component personnel is also required to provide personnel to fill in the armed forces needs during and after a time of training and procurement of other qualified persons and an additional unit in order to achieve a planed gathering or mobilization. This is in the case of when more persons and units are needed more than the usual component (Kurtz, 2004pp 45-89).
The history of the reserve component of the United Sates military force is rooted in the American tradition of soldier- citizen which started during the American war revolution. The members or personnel of the reserve component are recruited based on the regions they are in. this is a different as compared to their counterparts who are those in active duties which will be discussed later. In the case of reserve component recruitment it is also different from the case of Air and Army National Guard because they are the reserve component are organized and recognized as state militias which is indicated in the US Constitution. The reserve components members are supposed to carry out their duties within a minimum of 39 days each year in the military service. The 39 days include them working on drills in each months weekends and an annual training which takes fifteen days. This concept forms the reverse component common slogan, “one weekend a month, two weeks a year”. Despite the fact that the reserve component are equipped, trained, and organized like the active duty, they still differ based on their unique characteristics. This difference is especially seen when examining the aspects of the National Guard which carry out both the state and federal missions and roles. The reserve components additionally operate within the requirements of their own special policies, regulations and laws.
Table 1. strength of the army reserve components based on category in march 1998, (Bakin and Kaufmann 1989, p 62)
|
Category |
Army NATIONAL Guard
|
Total in thousands
|
||
| Selected reserve
Part time reservists Full time reservists Active Guard/ Reserve Military technicians Individual ready reserve Inactive national Guard Standby Reserve Retired reserve total |
459.0
449.0 399.4 49.6 25.0 24.6 ………….. 10.0 A
459.0 |
601.0
315.1
2975.1
17.9
12.4
5.5
285.9 ……… 1.1
622.1
1224.2
|
1,060.1
764.2 67.6 37.4 30.1 285.9 10.0 1.1 622.1 1,683.2 |
Retrieved from reserve component Fiscal year 1897 annual report
The various categories which make up the reserve component are three. Members fall in one of these three categories which are:
The ready reserve
The members of the ready reserve are from thus military National Guard and the Reserve who are organized into units or even act as individuals who are responsible to recall to their active duties to assist the active duty component especially in times of national emergency and during wars. The Ready reserve further has some of the subcategories of the reserve component. They are three in number which are: The Selected Reserve which consist of those individuals and units working within the Ready Reserve and are assigned the role by their Services to mainly work at the onset of any wartime missions. This duty is first approved by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The selected reserve members are given the first priority above the other Reserves. Additionally other subcategorize which fall under the selected Reserve are,
a.) The training pipeline which comprises of personnel who are non-deployed and listed as the selected Reserve members but are not yet through with their first active duty training. They are the officers who are still undergoing the training in various professional categories or under the undergraduate training.
b.) Troop Program Units (TPU)/ Drilling Reservists. These are members of a trained unit and on part time basis they participate in training activities of units
c.) Active Reserve. Guard (AGR) is members who are part of the national Reserve or Guard within the Selected Reserve. They are ordered to Take up active duty which means working full-time in the duties of National Guard. this is with the purpose of administering, organizing, instructing, recruiting and training the various units within the reserve component.
d.) Individual Mobilization Augmentees (IMAs) these are trained individuals who are assigned the duty to work with the active component, or the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or the Selected Services System organization’s billet. They take up to these roles especially when there are gaps to be filled or immediately after mobilization. The individual Mobilization Augumentees take part in the training activities based on part time services while at the same time there is an active component within the unit who are ready to be recalled in cases of mobilization
Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) members are assigned the duty to provide a pool of manpower. These members are those who are experienced in the various assignments within the active duty component. they also have had sufficient training and are from the Selected Reserve. The recruits in this category are those who have had experience in carrying out various military service obligations and are not yet through with the assigned roles in the military service. The subcategories under the Individual Ready Reserve are:
a.) Inactive National Guard(ING) who are the National Guard member’s personnel under the Ready Reserve inactive status. This means they have not been selected to be in the Selected Reserve which is attached to a certain unit of the National Guard. Each year the ING personnel are required to muster based on an assigned unit but they do not get engaged in any training activities. in cases of mobilization the members of ING get mobilized within their units (Laurent, 2005, 20-51). The Retired Reserve are the members of the all the components of reserve officers. The category also involves the retired persons and receive their payment based on their reserve service or their active duty . the enlisted personnel and the Reserve officers who also fit for retirement pay and below the age of 60 are also part of the retired reserve. The category also covers the non voluntary service by Reserve and the ready Reserve members.
Mobilization involves calling of all the entire units of the military forces and the individual service members to be part of active duty based on various conditions. in cases of war, full mobilization is required. this is also in times of national security .The United States congress is responsible in giving a go ahead for full mobilization. Full mobilization involves the participation of the retired and the inactive members and may carry out their tasks for a period of up to six months after the end of the emergency of way declaration. Another form of mobilization is the partial mobilization which only affects the Ready Reserve in times of national emergency declaration. A maximum of the Ready Reserve personnel are in once in every two years activated.A third type of mobilization is during the Presidential Reserve Call- Ups. This happens when the President informs the congress to mobilize. It is not therefore in times of war or in national emergencies. A total numbers of the selected Reservists should be 200,000 and the individual Ready Reservist should be 30,000 who are to work for a period of 270 days. The individual services secretaries are provided with the 15- DAY Statute for calling up the ready Reserves for a period of 15 days each years for operational missions and for training. The RC volunteers are also part of the recruits who are within the military and request to be assigned an active duty despite the fact that they are within the category of the reserve component category . they will only be approved to do so by the National Guard personnel in charge (Kurtz, 2004pp 45-89)…
The National Guard
The National Guard forces in 1988 had eighteen maneuver units, ten combat divisions, four armored cavalry regiments, three medical brigades , four antitank battalions, two groups of special forces , five scout battalions and a single battalion on mountain infantry. The seven battalions and the five brigades are part of the current Nation Guard round out which forms the actives divisions of the army. This is because they have under structured the divisions into an active force ready for any war cases. The National Gourd units have close training and planning relations with the original active army through their sharing of priority ranking in cases of resource allocation. Currently, the active army division total up to eighteen of them. Four of the eighteen have both the national Guard battalion and brigade. The national Guard rounds one brigade and the other three are controlled by the National Guard battalions. So in total the Army National Guard is represented by the eighteen out of the 28 army combat divisions.
Table 2: selected military units distribution by the army component (1987)
Percent in total army
| Type of unit | Army NATIONAL
Guard |
Army reserve | |
| Combat
Combat division Separate brigades Armored cavalry regiments Mechanized infantry battalions Light antitank infantry battalions Support Training divisions and brigades Rail units Maintenance companies Supply and service units Combat engineer units Truck companies Conventionalammunition companies |
64 21 43 51 55 18 0
0
0 0 3
11 10 33 33
32 |
36 66 57 47 43 74 100
100
0 0 0
46 31 43
37
17
|
0 13 0 2 2 8 0
0
100 100 97
43 59 24
30
51 |
Retrieved from reserve component Fiscal year 1897 annual report (Binkin and Kaufmann 1989, p 62)
On the other hand the army reserve only provides three different brigades and thirteen battalions of maneuver. In most Ares it consists of a small group of combat service support units and the combat support. The difference between the active army its guard mission and the Reserve are very visible which can be seen on the combat –support is based on each of the manpower function and authorization percentage seen below:
| Function | Active Army | Army National Guard | Army Reserve |
| Support
Combat |
48
52 |
29
71
|
81
19 |
The army reserve component defines all the seven US. military reserve components and it can also define to only the five reserve components which are directly affiliated to the five active duty military services but are not part of the Air National Guard or the Army National Guard . The Army National Guards as well as the Air National Guard in many cases are not similar to the Air Force Reserve or the Army Reserve respectively. The main difference is on the government level which each of them is subordinated to. the Air Force Reserve and the Army Reserve are under the control of the federal government. The National Guards on the other hand are subordinated to the different state governments. This is in the case of the Kansas Army National Guard which is under the control of Kansas state government. This is with the exception of when the federal service is summoned by the Congress or by the United State president according to the constitution. for example the Kansas Army National Guard and the Air National Guard are under the control of the State of Kansas and city reports to the governor of Kansas at all times who is their chief commander (Kurtz, 2004pp 45-89).
This interaction in terms of subordination is something which has been inherited from the unique relationship which was there a between the colonial power the militias of each state which worked in balancing power and preventing to be over taken by the federal army . many Americans during this colonial period lived in fear that the federal army would deprive them of their states rights. The current National Guard system is as a result of the past militias organization based on the Militia Act of 1903. Apart from this theory on federal power check, the difference between the National Guard and the federal military reserve shows that the governors of the state have the ability to use their trained personnel in times of national emergencies and in disaster relief services and also in times of crisis they are called up on to restore law and order. The national Guards are mainly responsible to restoring order in terms of crisis because they are not restricted by the Posse Comitatus Act not unless they are working within the jurisdictions of the federal government.
However, these restrictions only apply to only four among the total five reserves components in the same case as with the counterparts who are the active duty military. The United State Coast Guard Reserve and the United States Coast Guards are both not subjected to the restrictions according to the Posse Comitatus Act. This is because it is only the united States Armed Force which is not part of the Department of Defense of the United States. The National Guard of the United States and the National Guard also differ in the sense that the National Guard is a militia forces based in each state while the National Guard of the United States is a federal military reserve force which is a joint reserve component of the United States air force and the United States Army which are both members of the National Guard and are appointed by the federal military service(10 USC 12401. Army and Air National Guard of the United States: status). This is under the consent given by the state governors. The United States National Guard has two different subcomponents which are the Air National Guard of the United States of the Air forces and the Army national Guard of the United State the at army national Guard of the U. S comprises of members of the Army national guard who are federally recognized. Also it has the Air National Guard of the United States which comprises of members of the Air National Guard who are federally recognized.
Costs and accounts
Based on the procurement account of the army it is possible to analyze on how the military force operates. the reserves are not charged on the equipment values which have been inherited from the active forces. Such a cost is referred to a sunk cost because it is a hand me down equipment however such a costs shows an opportunity cost. The modernization of equipments is postponed when the active forces continue to use the equipment. . it is also possible for the equipment to get lost. another alternative is that the equipment can be sold to other nations in need of them or given freely as a form of military assistance program . this therefore becomes difficult to have a precise estimation of costs. the 1986 records showed that during this fiscal year, Army National Guard was provided with equipment worth $ 1.6 billion and for the Army Reserve in this same year was over $ 200 million.
Other hidden costs which involve the various institutions of the United States military force are costs dealing with activities of the active force in offering help to the reserve support units. Example of such hidden costs includes the costs of operating in the case where the active Amy works towards the installation of services provision towards both the reserve and the active units. It should be noted that these costs are able to offset some of the costs extends which are taken by the reserve forces in helping the active units in the case where the reservists maintain an equipment which will be handed down to the active army. This means that when estimating the budget of the Army Reserve it is highly possible that such a budget will be understated and this will depend on the costs allocated during budgeting for the purchase of anew equipment and the availability of an inherited equipment which will lead to an opportunity cost. In terms of training the presence of educated and a high number of recruit does not give a guarantee of the nation’s military capability. this is why the Army Reserve personnel first require to recruit new individual and then train them to fit into specific skills based on the cohesion requirement and team work needed to make the recruits be collectively trained.
Recruitment, retention and demographics
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