Army to Expand Citizen-Soldier's Training Periods...

jchaff1134

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-07-30/army-guard-reserve-training/56595948/1

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"The end of fighting in Iraq and the drawdown in Afghanistan will not mean a return to a peacetime schedule of drilling one weekend a month and two weeks a year for the 550,000 citizen soldiers of the Army's National Guard and Reserve, according to the Army's top general.

Instead, they will keep preparing for war, with training periods away from home each year that would grow from a two-week block to up to seven weeks, Gen. Ray Odierno, Army chief of staff said in an interview Monday with USA TODAY. Drilling one weekend a month would continue.
"As they go through it, their readiness will increase, the number of days training will increase," Odierno said.

Army Maj. Michael Moricas, a member of the Rhode Island National Guard who served in Afghanistan, predicted there might be push-back from employers eager for the previous minimalist approach. And he anticipated mixed reviews from soldiers. "You might have some guys who will be OK with that and some people who will part ways," Moricas said.

The change, which will take effect next year, is a far less demanding schedule than what's occurred after 9/11 when Guardsmen and reservists suddenly left jobs and families for a year or more, preceded at times with four- to six-month periods of training, the general said. But it will be more than the traditional peacetime commitment of drilling one weekend a month and two weeks a year.

"What it will mean for the families is that when they do have extra training, it will be very predictable and they should know very far in advance when it's going to happen," Odierno said. "That's key as we work with employers."
Select National Guard or Reserve units would be part of a five-year cycle of training, available for deployment the last year of that period probably for no more than 30 to 45 days, he said.
In the past decade, National Guard and Reserve soldiers were mobilized at record levels. During 2005, the full-time Army was bolstered by more than 100,000 National Guard soldiers.

Odierno said that National Guard members and reservists acquired combat skills the Army sorely needs now as it tries to save money by reducing its ranks of full-time soldiers from 570,000 to 490,000 by 2017, and cuts the number of combat brigades from 45 to 32.
"How do we sustain the readiness and experience that we've gained in the National Guard and Reserve component?" Odierno asked. "That's what we've been working on."

Current commitments to Afghanistan could mean a year of deployment for National Guard and Reserve troops will continue until the U.S. withdrawal of forces there concludes in 2014.
Joyce Raezer, executive director of the National Military Family Association, said the wars went on for so long, that fewer people remember the peacetime schedule. But she cautioned about adhering to the promised limitations on training.
"If families can plan during peacetime, they'll by OK," she said. "If the Army puts out the schedule and then doesn't stick to it, all bets are off." "

Thoughts and opinions? Personally, I don't see how any reservists could keep (or find) full-time jobs with such an expansion. My dream is to go into the reserves (I'm MSII in ROTC) so that I can keep sharp on my civilian career (Software Development), but there's already very little wiggle room with the two weeks, weekend-a-month model. What do you think?
 
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-07-30/army-guard-reserve-training/56595948/1

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Thoughts and opinions? Personally, I don't see how any reservists could keep (or find) full-time jobs with such an expansion. My dream is to go into the reserves (I'm MSII in ROTC) so that I can keep sharp on my civilian career (Software Development), but there's already very little wiggle room with the two weeks, weekend-a-month model. What do you think?

It's a nice goal. The pre-9/11 drill schedule and resultant product was pretty poor. Even now, most of my friends who've departed active duty and tried the guard found it to be very disappointing. It's a very tough model to make actually work.
 
I don't think this is anything new. As it is any NG units doing overseas training gets extra annual training days (from 15 to 20 - 25) and as a part of the AFORGEN cycle, units slated to training center rotations or or scheduel to deploy got extra days of annual training (maybe upto 30 to 45 days total).

As for balancing a civilian career and a military career. What you put in is what you get. NG is no active duty. Simply one weekend a month and 15 days of annual training cannot equal to 365 days of active duty. At the same time, you can do more than one weekend a month and 15 days a year. Pilots get extra training days and periods to keepy their flight proficiencies. Three types of NG soldiers - ones that are able to balance their civilian career and NG career to be successful in both, ones that focus more on their civilian career and accordingly more successful with their civilian career, and ones that focus more on their military career and accrodingly less successful with their civilian career.

If it was easy to balance NG career and civilian career, everyone would do it. Afterall, just like the Army, the National Guard is a volunteer organization. It's think you can't balance your civilian career, don't join.
 
I don't think this is anything new. As it is any NG units doing overseas training gets extra annual training days (from 15 to 20 - 25) and as a part of the AFORGEN cycle, units slated to training center rotations or or scheduel to deploy got extra days of annual training (maybe upto 30 to 45 days total).

As for balancing a civilian career and a military career. What you put in is what you get. NG is no active duty. Simply one weekend a month and 15 days of annual training cannot equal to 365 days of active duty. At the same time, you can do more than one weekend a month and 15 days a year. Pilots get extra training days and periods to keepy their flight proficiencies. Three types of NG soldiers - ones that are able to balance their civilian career and NG career to be successful in both, ones that focus more on their civilian career and accordingly more successful with their civilian career, and ones that focus more on their military career and accrodingly less successful with their civilian career.

If it was easy to balance NG career and civilian career, everyone would do it. Afterall, just like the Army, the National Guard is a volunteer organization. It's think you can't balance your civilian career, don't join.

Very true indeed. However, I would think employers would be more lenient with Soldiers in the AFORGEN cycle as this is part of the deployment process and it was understood at the time of hiring that the soldier would deploy at some point. But if the seven weeks of training occurs regularly i.e. outside of AFORGEN, especially during the drawdown of troops from the Middle East, I just don't see employers leaping to hire or keep National Guard soldiers, even if it means jumping through loopholes in the law that guarantees NG civilian careers. A lot of the other discussions I've seen over this article are less optimistic about the expansion. I'm still trying to figure out if it's good or bad; keep the thoughts coming and thanks for the input so far.
 
Very true indeed. However, I would think employers would be more lenient with Soldiers in the AFORGEN cycle as this is part of the deployment process and it was understood at the time of hiring that the soldier would deploy at some point. But if the seven weeks of training occurs regularly i.e. outside of AFORGEN, especially during the drawdown of troops from the Middle East, I just don't see employers leaping to hire or keep National Guard soldiers, even if it means jumping through loopholes in the law that guarantees NG civilian careers. A lot of the other discussions I've seen over this article are less optimistic about the expansion. I'm still trying to figure out if it's good or bad; keep the thoughts coming and thanks for the input so far.

It is illegal to discriminate against employees based on their military membership. Does it happen, yes.

It is give and take as NG/RC soldiers can't have it both way. Can they hide their NG membership, in certain cases. At the same time, they can leverage their NG membership to get jobs.

There is a semi-governmental organzation called Employer Support to Guard and Reserve. ESGR.ORG One of their functions is to educate employers. ARFOGEN doesn't mean you are going to deploy, rather you are ready to deploy. OIF is done. There is already reduction in OEF, which means less Guard and Reserve units will be mobilized.

Not sure where you got seven weeks of training, but my 15 days of annual training, plus 24 days for drills, already at 39 days, which mean it's only 8 additional days. For most employers, they don't care what their employees do during weekends (24 days). Additional training days can be additional weekends or Friday or Monday to minimize impacts.

It is hard for small employers to keep jobs when their employees deploy. But it's harder for NG soldiers to leave their family and go serve our country.
 
Not sure where you got seven weeks of training, but my 15 days of annual training, plus 24 days for drills, already at 39 days, which mean it's only 8 additional days. For most employers, they don't care what their employees do during weekends (24 days). Additional training days can be additional weekends or Friday or Monday to minimize impacts.

The seven weeks is what this article is talking about: Gen. Odierno is proposing that summer training be expanded from 15 annual days to seven weeks of training. That's what's causing the pushback from some NG soldiers and employers currently. And :thumb: to the last piece of your post.
 
The end of fighting in Iraq and the drawdown in Afghanistan will not mean a return to a peacetime schedule of drilling one weekend a month and two weeks a year for the 550,000 citizen soldiers of the Army's National Guard and Reserve, according to the Army's top general.

Instead, they will keep preparing for war, with training periods away from home each year that would grow from a two-week block to up to seven weeks, Gen. Ray Odierno, Army chief of staff said in an interview Monday with USA TODAY. Drilling one weekend a month would continue.
"As they go through it, their readiness will increase, the number of days training will increase," Odierno said.

I read this interview with Odierno in the paper last week. It's not going to be just "some pushback" if this is as described by Gen Odierno- They are going to get a heck of a lot of pushback from all employers and even more from small business owners. Who is going to agree to hire or promote an employee who is potentially looking at 7 consecutive weeks away from the office annually? What small business could even afford that? The Reserves and NG are already heavily populated with State and Federal Government employees for many of their drilling officers (the USG is much more lenient in this case than employers who actually have to earn a profit)- put this into effect and I can't see many nongovernmental employees who will be around for long. It was hard enough for USAR and ARNG officers to balance the long weekends once or twice/month with civilian jobs and then get away for a couple of weeks on top of that- 7 weeks plus the weekend drill periods? This won't be a matter of balancing reserve commitment with a civilian job like people do now- it will be more like trying to balance after they cut both legs out from under you. While "Guard bums" (using a term that I used to hear a lot for guys who didn't have full time jobs and bounced around from one AT slot to another throughout the year, or who would take any deployment available) may think this is a good idea- I can't see how the Army will be able to sustain this for very long with most careers. Good luck with this braincramp!
 
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^^This is more of what I was hearing from ARNG soldiers and officers and what concerned me in the first place. Thanks for the input
 
How many spots are filling by reservists who are spending far more than 7 weeks away? I'm not talking about a war zone either.

I applied for a federal job that is locked up because a reservist has been gone for a long time but they can't hire for the position (even temp).
 
^^This is more of what I was hearing from ARNG soldiers and officers and what concerned me in the first place. Thanks for the input
I think employers will understand Reservists being mobilized to go to War a heck of a lot more than they will buy into a 7 week per year training exercis. Keep in mind that those employees also get vacation, sick days, maternity/paternity leave - all kinds of things that suddenly start to be big drains on productvityand profitability if you combine them with the additional time that Genm Odierno is describing. The Government doesn't care if they lose money- but they will care and the bill payer will be the Reservists who don't get promoted, don't get hired to fill new jobs and are the first out the door when times get a little slow.
 
I think employers will understand Reservists being mobilized to go to War a heck of a lot more than they will buy into a 7 week per year training exercis. Keep in mind that those employees also get vacation, sick days, maternity/paternity leave - all kinds of things that suddenly start to be big drains on productvityand profitability if you combine them with the additional time that Genm Odierno is describing. The Government doesn't care if they lose money- but they will care and the bill payer will be the Reservists who don't get promoted, don't get hired to fill new jobs and are the first out the door when times get a little slow.
That's exactly how I'm seeing it, bruno. I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything and wasn't crazy for thinking that it sounds like this expansion is going to hurt a lot more than it helps.
 
I still think this "up to seven weeks" will for a small portion of NG soldiers.

A few years ago, for a BCT mobilizing I think they did either 30 day or 45 day Annual Training prior to mobilization to minimize time at the mob station. The idea was to mininize time at the mob station and give them more time at home. Not much more happened as NG stop mobilizing big units.

Don't know where the Army will get the funding for all those extra training days.
 
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