Problems with the Reserve System Revealed

For a long time, experts have said that the US military reserve system (involving the TFC strategy) has serious problems. Evidently, the stress of this war is beginning to cause the system to break down. Believe me folks, this is not something you want to see happen. If we lose an effective reserve system, we won't be capable of maintaining more than a bare minimum military presence anywhere in the world, much less fighting a full-scale war like Iraq. This AP article is just a blurb, but it illustrates the problem.

"The Army Reserve's most senior general says his force is in trouble due to misguided Army policies and practices.

In an internal memo, Lieutenant General James Helmly, chief of the Army Reserve, says the force is so hampered that it is 'rapidly degenerating into a "broken" force.'

Helmly writes that the Reserve has reached the point of being unable to fulfill its missions or regenerate its forces for future assignments.

The Army Reserve has about 200-thousand soldiers with nearly 52-thousand on active duty for the war on terrorism, mainly in Iraq. About 50 have died there.

Two officials who saw the original memo confirmed its contents to The Associated Press.

Helmly's memo is the type that rarely becomes public, although some private defense analysts and members of Congress have openly raised similar questions."