Army to Call Up 4,000 More Reservists

The Army plans to summon a new group of about 4,000 reserve troops for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the total number of additional call-ups announced this week to nearly 10,000, officials said Wednesday.

The Army plans to involuntarily mobilize 5,674 troops from its Individual Ready Reserve, former troops who remain eligible to be called to active duty for years after returning to civilian life.

Robert Smiley, an Army official who deals with training, readiness and mobilization, said thousands more reservists from that pool could be involuntarily mobilized as the Army tries to cope with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Army plans to order to active duty “about 4,000” troops from Army Reserve and Army National Guard units that have not been deployed, Smiley said. These troops will fill specialized jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan the Army was unable to fill from the Individual Ready Reserve, he said.

Smiley did not offer a timetable for when the Guard and reserve troops would be summoned.

The moves are the latest indication of how heavily the Pentagon is relying on reservists in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Smiley said the Individual Ready Reserve troops would begin receiving mobilization orders Tuesday.

Many have been out of uniform for years.

“I would think that there’s going to be soldiers who, yes, will be shocked. But I would say that the majority of the soldiers in the IRR today understand that they are in the Army,” said Col. Debra Cook, head of the Army’s Human Resources Command.