Citizen-Soldiers serve total Army, joint force

By Retired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey W. Talley, former commanding general, U.S. Army Reserve Command and Chief of Army ReserveOctober 4, 2016

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U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers from the 404th Civil Affairs Battalion transport simulated casualties to a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter from the New Jersey Army National Guard's 1-150th Assault Helicopter Battalion during Exercise Gridiron at Joint Base Mc... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

Today's Army Reserve is universally recognized as a critical component of the Total Army and the Joint Force. As I retire as 32nd Chief of Army Reserve and 7th Commanding General of U.S. Army Reserve Command, I am honored to have served this nation, and to have led this incredible organization through its transformation from a strategic reserve to what it is today: America's global operational reserve force.

The Army Reserve is a worldwide organization of more than 200,000 Soldiers and civilians, 1,100 reserve centers and training facilities, six installations, and equipment inventories valued at more than $39 billion dollars.

Since 2001, more than 335,000 Army Reserve Citizen Soldiers have been mobilized and deployed to every major combat zone across the globe -- 63,000 in the last four years alone -- creating a new paradigm of reliance on the Army Reserve as an essential partner in preventing conflict, shaping the strategic environment and responding to operational contingencies at home and abroad.

The credit for our success goes not to me, but to the men and women of the Army Reserve and the remarkable job they have done over the past 15 years to support the national security strategy and Army commitments worldwide. Citizen Soldiers bring essential enabling capabilities to combat formations around the world, setting the theater and sustaining it with combat support and combat service support capabilities that reside predominantly in the Army Reserve.

THE ARMY RESERVE: AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF THE TOTAL ARMY AND THE JOINT FORCE

Just a year ago, we were still making the case that the Army Reserve must remain an operational reserve. Today that debate is over, and the Army Reserve is recognized as an integral and essential element of the Total Army and the Joint Force.

We do this primarily through the Plan, Prepare and Provide Readiness model that forward-stations Army Reserve Engagements Cells (ARECs) and Teams (ARETs). They provide direct planning support to Army Service Component Commands (ASCC) and Field Armies and integrate Army Reserve capabilities into Combatant Command- and Corps-level plans across all warfighting functions.

Together these ARECs and ARETs provide the versatile, tailored, responsive and consistently available capabilities Combatant Commanders need for planned and emerging missions.

PRIVATE PUBLIC PARTNERSHIPS

Another way the Army Reserve is enhancing readiness is through its Private Public Partnership (P3) program, which has been emulated throughout the Department of Defense. P3 is designed to accomplish two objectives: Help Soldiers find employment or advance their careers in the private sector; and enhance the individual and operational readiness of our forces in a time when global challenges are increasing while budgets are decreasing.

This is accomplished by merging the best of Army training with civilian professional development to enhance the skills and core competencies of Soldiers and leaders at the individual level, and, when combined with Title 10 training, to advance the readiness of units to meet specific global needs.

A CAPABILITIES-BASED FORCE

The Total Force relies on capabilities within the Army Reserve to meet National Military Strategy requirements, and to mitigate the risks associated with a smaller Active Component force. Because a significant portion of the Army's combat support and combat service support force structure resides in the Army Reserve, the Army relies upon trained and ready Citizen Soldiers to execute missions across the globe. Readiness is the Army's number one priority, and adequate resourcing ensures that our units are properly manned, trained, equipped, and led.

The Army Reserve provides most of the Army's technical enablers and nearly all of the capabilities essential to the opening phase of major operations, including petroleum pipeline and terminal operations, rail units, biological identification detachments, broadcast operations, civil affairs, military information support, full-spectrum engineering, medical, logistics, and many more.

The Army Reserve also stands ready to support lead agencies for domestic emergencies and disaster relief efforts with capabilities vital to disaster response. The Army Reserve provides federal support to Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) missions, including aviation lift, search and rescue or extraction, and quartermaster units (supply food, shelter, potable water, heated tents, etc.). In many cases, these national life-saving capabilities are almost exclusively or predominately in the Army Reserve.

SUSTAINABLE READINESS

Sustainable Readiness will optimize today's operational force while balancing the Army's steady state missions and contingency response capability with available resources.

While Army Force Generation (ARFORGEN) was developed to sustain large combat operations in two theaters over an extended period, Sustainable Readiness will adapt the force generation system to changing strategic environment, characterized by persistent forward presence and global engagement, uncertain demands and limited resources.

Under Sustainable Readiness, all components of the Army must remain ready and postured to protect the nation and its interests. For the Army Reserve, this means prioritizing readiness in allocated units and early-entry/set-the-theater enabling capabilities required to meet planned contingency operations. It also means prioritizing readiness and its four components (Manning, Training, Equipping, and Leader Development) with targeted initiatives.

Manning is the Army Reserve's most important element of building readiness. Using Sustainable Readiness, the Army Reserve will realign Full-Time Support (FTS) personnel from lower-priority positions to early entry/set-the-theater units, filling those authorizations to the greatest extent possible. We will also recruit new and transitioning Soldiers, while making every effort to recover non-participants to shore up personnel shortages within the ranks, as well as retaining current personnel.

Training is the second component of Readiness and, starting in FY17, the Army Reserve will begin reporting and evaluating training under Objective-T standards. Again, priority will go to resourcing allocated units and early enablers. All of our commanders will ensure that individual training readiness standards are met. And because predictable, multicomponent integrated training is essential for building readiness, the Army Reserve will rely on leadership to help us prioritize resources for Army and Joint training events that leverage live, constructive, virtual and gaming capabilities.

The third component of readiness is Equipping. "Modernized equipment remains essential for ensuring that Army Reserve early enablers remain both interoperable and readily available as a vital component of the operational force.

Equipping the Army Reserve is the most challenging component of readiness. To facilitate readiness in priority units, equipping modernization, acquisition, and fielding must be realigned and rebalanced. Modernized equipment remains essential for ensuring that Army Reserve enablers remain interoperable, agile, and readily available as a vital component of the Total Force.

Leader development is the component of readiness that provides our military with a decisive advantage within an increasingly uncertain and complex world. The Army Reserve develops adaptive and capable leaders within a framework of formal training, professional education, and operational assignments.

MOVING FORWARD

Meeting the defense and security challenges of today and tomorrow will require continued access to, and reliance upon, the skills, capabilities and experience of a ready, operational Army Reserve. Inherent in this mission are opportunities -- and also challenges.

The first and foremost challenge is to meet the demand requirement. Army force structure constraints will require the Army Reserve to continue to provide technical and sustainment capabilities to the Total Force, especially early deploying enablers. That means pre-deployment training, which is critical to the success of our mission. We will not always have the luxury of extended post-mob training timelines, so we must plan and train accordingly. We must also be ready for the unknown. The demand will not always include high-end conflict, but often unexpected emergencies such as the Ebola outbreak in Africa. And of course, resources will be a continuing challenge now and for the foreseeable future. We do not anticipate additional resources beyond current projected budget submissions.

In spite of the many challenges we have faced and overcome, the highest privilege and greatest professional honor of my life has been to be a Soldier. Not to have achieved the rank of general, not to have been an officer, but to have been a Soldier, and to have served honorably, in peace and war, among my fellow Soldiers.

Moving forward, the opportunity remains to do what Soldiers of this great Army have done for generations; to serve with honor and distinction and, when called upon, to fight and win our Nation's wars.

As I take my leave, I do so knowing that today's Army Reserve is the most battle-tested and experienced in our nation's history, now universally acknowledged as the Army's global operational reserve force. Meeting the security challenges of today and tomorrow will not be easy, but one thing we know is that it will require continued access to, and reliance upon, the skills, capabilities and experience of the Army Reserve.

* Army Reserve Communications and Strategy & Integration Directorate contributed to this article

Related Links:

Army.mil: Professional Development Toolkit