The Need to Ensure Training Readiness in the Total Force

The United States is fighting a war in Afghanistan that has lasted longer than any war in its history. In this war, the United States military has relied heavily on the contributions of its reserve component because the active force is not large enough to handle the burden alone. The last time the draft provided augmentation to the active forcewas in 1973. Since then, the active force has become increasingly dependent upon thereserve components for augmentation. The evolution to a fully-integrated reservecomponent has been painful at times. From the Spanish-American War though the war inVietnam, the United States relied partly on the draft to generate manpower for the forcesthat would go to war. After Vietnam, the U.S. adopted an all-volunteer force. The Total Force Policy relied on the reserve components to provide additional capability to the active forces for national emergencies. After the Persian Gulf War, the military had to make significant changes to laws and policies to ensure successful integration of the reserves for future conflicts, including the current war in Afghanistan.In every conflict of U.S. history, the performance of the reserve forces was proportional to their level of training readiness. Those conflicts where the reserve components did not perform as well as expected indicated poor training preparation ofthe reserves. The reserve leadership was not properly trained; the reserve units were notequipped to train properly; or the reserves were not utilized in a manner for which they were trained. Following each conflict, the perceived performance of the reserve components brought about changes to law and policies to address future issues. Laws and policies evolved to provide the framework for total force integration that we utilize as a nation, today. This book argues that the individual Services must systematically testthe reserve components to ensure training readiness for the Total Force. Training readiness establishes the foundation for a solid relationship between the active and reserve forces of a Service thus ensuring our nation is prepared for future conflicts.Chapter One traces the roots of current policies affecting the reserve components developed from the Spanish-American War through the ending of the draft and the war in Vietnam. Chapter Two reviews the post-draft era and describes the further evolution of policies and legislation affecting the reserve components through the Persian Gulf War. Chapter Three explains the importance of sustaining training readiness of the reserves both for the current conflicts and in the future. Chapter Four concludes with recommendations for all Services to facilitate maintaining training readiness in the reserve components for future conflicts.