Leader of Army Reserve Fears a ‘Broken Force’

Burdens placed on military reservists since the Sept. 11 attacks, combined with “dysfunctional” Pentagon policies, have damaged morale and retention and threaten to turn the Army Reserve into a “broken force,” the commander of the Reserve told senior military leaders.

Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly criticized Pentagon decisions extending reservists’ tours in war zones, giving troops as little as three days’ notice before mobilizations, and calling reservists to active duty after they had served and returned to civilian life.

Such policies have strained the Army Reserve to the point that the 200,000-strong force could be unable to carry out future missions, Helmly wrote in a memo to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker.

Given the demands that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have placed on men and women who had planned on being part-time soldiers, the Army Reserve is “in grave danger of being unable to meet other operational requirements” and is “rapidly degenerating into a ‘broken’ force,” Helmly wrote.

“I do not wish to sound alarmist. I do wish to send a clear, distinctive signal of deepening concern,” Helmly said.

Helmly’s memo is the most bluntly worded critique of Pentagon policies by a senior military commander. It comes as further evidence of the strain being felt by large segments of the military -- especially the Reserve and National Guard -- from a U.S. military commitment in Iraq that shows no sign of easing.

Reservists and National Guard troops make up about 40% of the U.S. force in Iraq, a percentage that will increase when troop rotation over the next several months is complete.

Both the Army Reserve and National Guard have suffered shortfalls in recruitment because of the Iraq war, and Guard officials said last month that the service must be overhauled.

Reserve and Guard troops have sued the Pentagon to avoid deployments and have balked at orders. That frustration culminated last month in a confrontation between a National Guard soldier and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in Kuwait over the adequacy of armor protection for troops.

But Helmly’s memo represents criticism from a top commander, and the Reserve leader cited a number of Pentagon policies and decisions that he said had harmed morale and strained the family lives of reservists.

Besides last-minute extensions of Iraq deployments, the memo criticized the lack of planning for the Iraqi insurgency, which forced 8,000 soldiers to be remobilized and sent back to Iraq three months after returning to civilian life.

There are about 52,000 Army Reserve soldiers on active duty, with 17,000 in Iraq and 2,000 in Afghanistan.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, another 72,000 reservists have served on active duty and have since been demobilized.

The contents of Helmly’s memo, which was written Dec. 20 and delivered through the Army’s senior chain of command, were first reported Wednesday in the Baltimore Sun.

Helmly expressed concern that the Pentagon had made it common practice to use cash bonuses as incentives for Army reservists.

“We must consider the point at which we confuse ‘volunteer to become an American soldier’ with ‘mercenary,’ ” Helmly wrote. “Use of pay to induce ‘volunteerism’ will cause the expectation of always receiving such financial incentives in future conflicts.”

The Army National Guard also is using monetary incentives to bolster its ranks. Last month the Guard announced plans to triple retention bonuses, from $5,000 to $15,000, for soldiers who sign up for another six-year tour in the Guard. Bonuses for first-time recruits will jump from $6,000 to $10,000.

Lt. Gen H. Steven Blum, chief of the Army National Guard, defended the bonuses. “Otherwise, the Guard will be broken and not ready the next time it’s needed, either here at home or for war,” Blum told reporters at the Pentagon.

After the Vietnam War, the Pentagon moved many of the Army’s specialties like military police, medics and engineers from active-duty units into the Reserve, ensuring that reservists would be called up every time the nation went to war.

Pentagon officials at the time believed that, unlike in Vietnam, when few National Guard soldiers were mobilized, future call-ups would help unite the country during wartime because more U.S. communities would be affected.

The weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks brought a surge of patriotism within the ranks of reservists. But multiple tours abroad and the Pentagon’s “stop loss” policy -- keeping troops in the military after their commitments had expired -- have hurt morale.

The concerns expressed by the Army Reserve chief brought sharp criticism of the Pentagon from Democrats in Congress, many of whom have pressed Rumsfeld to add troops to an Army stretched thin by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“By consistently underestimating the number of troops necessary for the successful occupation of Iraq, the administration has placed a tremendous burden on the Army Reserve and created this crisis,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said in a statement. “If we are serious about succeeding in Iraq -- and we must succeed because too much is now at stake -- the administration must develop a true plan for the war’s financing with realistic numbers in a timely manner.”

In response to Helmly’s memo, Army officials said they were working to address the concerns the commander raised, and said some of the problems were being corrected.

Helmly also offered recommendations to change several personnel policies that had “hamstrung” the Army Reserve.

One recommendation would extend the mandatory retirement age for Reserve officers and fill the stretched ranks with retirees who volunteered to return to duty.