Cheney OKs First Group of Call-Ups : Reserves: Up to 49,703 reservists will be activated by Oct. 1, with duty summons beginning as early as today.

As many as 49,703 military reservists will be called to active duty by Oct. 1--including about 10,000 to be mobilized by the end of this month--with most destined for the “theater of operation” in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney authorized the top-ranking officers of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps to initiate the nation’s largest mobilization of the selective reserve since the 1961 Berlin crisis, said Pete Williams, a Pentagon spokesman.

The call-ups could begin as early as today, Williams said, declining to identify the units that have been designated for active service until individual reservists are notified by telephone.

Williams said Cheney’s order allows for the service branch chiefs to call up to 9,827 reservists by Aug. 31 and another 39,876 by Oct. 1.

Of those authorized for duty by the end of this month, 4,912 would come from the Army Reserves, 3,213 from the Navy Reserves, 1,002 from the Air Force Reserves and 700 from the Coast Guard Reserves.

By Oct. 1, the call-up could be expanded to an additional 19,822 reserves from the Army, 3,030 from the Navy, 13,474 from the Air Force and 550 from the Coast Guard.

Cheney authorized the Marines to call up 3,000 of its reserves, but Williams said it is unlikely that any will be mobilized because they will not be needed.

Cheney’s instructions to the service chiefs established the maximum number of reservists that the branches may press into service. Although the ceilings were requested by the military leaders, they are not required to meet the authorized levels.

“We will call up only what we need when we need it,” Williams said, adding that he does not know how many reservists will be needed or called immediately.

Cheney’s order to Pentagon officials was the second link in the chain of command leading to activation of the nation’s citizen militia for service in the Middle East crisis. President Bush initiated the process Wednesday, signing an executive order that allowed the defense secretary to order the voluntary reserve forces to active duty.

U.S. law allows the President to activate up to 200,000 reservists for 90 days, followed by one 90-day extension, without declaring a national emergency or in the absence of a congressional declaration of war.

In addition, Cheney ordered Pentagon chiefs to hold off scheduled retirements for military personnel considered “critical” to the current crisis. Williams said he did not know how many people would be affected by Cheney’s execution of his “stop-loss authority.”

Although Pentagon officials said they expect to continue adding active-duty forces to the estimated 40,000 troops on the ground in the region and 60,000 on their way, Williams declined to say how long the reservists will be needed or whether additional reserves will be deployed beyond the authorized levels.

“I would not speculate on what’s going to happen beyond Oct. 1,” he said. “I don’t think anybody knows.”

Williams said many of the reservists are likely to be sent into “the theater of operation” but not necessarily as fighting troops. Most will be used to provide support services, such as cargo handling, that are in short supply among active-duty forces.

In addition, some could be sent to fill in for military personnel pulled away from duty stations at North Atlantic Treaty Organization bases or in the United States. For the most part, entire reserve units will be relocated to needed bases and will serve together, Williams said.

Most of the Army reserve units will be given support tasks, including handling fuel, food, water and ammunition supplies, as well as a variety of transportation duties, Pentagon officials said. Navy reserve units will perform medical and dock-handling services, while Air Force reserves are likely to work as crews for transport flights.

Since the end of the draft in 1973, military officials have adopted a “total force policy” calling for part-time civilian reserve forces to handle some of the military’s non-fighting tasks, freeing the regular land, sea and air troops to concentrate on battlefield chores. The policy lowers Pentagon expenses, while providing a pool of specialists to call upon when needed.

Moreover, since reservists are volunteers and are pulled from the civilian work force in times of crisis, the policy ensures wider political support for military actions by requiring the government to mobilize civilians as part of any major operation, military observers contend.

“The whole point of a person volunteering . . . is that person is saying ‘I’m ready’ (to serve),” Williams said, noting that the service branches have provisions to exclude reservists who have legitimate hardships. “If they didn’t think they could be ready, they wouldn’t have volunteered.”