COUNTERCOLUMN: All Your Bias Are Belong to Us

It's getting to be old news. The Army mentions it's going to tap its IRR soldiers. A few IRR soldiers gripe at the unexpected sabbatical from school or work. And the media--not to be bothered with actually doing its homework--calls it a backdoor draft.

I'm even seeing the normally knowledgeable DefenseWatch come unhinged, and people screeching about IRR abuse. You'd think they'd know better.

Here are the real-world, no BS facts about mobilizing Reserve component units.

No unit ever went to war 100% up on everything. And every mobilizing unit mobilizes with vacant slots on its Unit Manning Roster, or UMR.

That could happen for a variety of reasons. Perhaps demographics are such that it was just hard to recruit for that slot. Or perhaps there are no MOS-qualified soldiers available and the unit has someone in the slot, but is waiting for funding to send the soldier to a school to qualify him. We never have enough training funds for schools.

Let's say an infantry battalion has a vacancy for a line medic. Well, you could mobilize the battalion anyway, and then send them downrange without a line medic. Ok, every battalion should have at least 9 line medics, or one per each rifle platoon. So let's say you're missing one. Ok, that seems reasonable. You're still at nearly 90% strength.

But think again. If you have a battalion short just one of 9 line medics, then that translates to a rifle company being short one of three, or a 33% shortfall.

And think yet again: if a company is short 33%--if they only have two line medics out of three authorized, then one of the three rifle platoons is short 100%.

You're sending a platoon of soldiers out without medical coverage.

Fucking stupid.

Ok, so you don't do that. You get the medics from somewhere else. Where? The aid station. Ok, so let's say you have eight medics working in the aid station. Well, one of them's the medical platoon sergeant, and he's going to be busy running and administering the platoon. That leaves seven, not counting the surgeon and PA. But a lot of times you've got your aid station split into a Forward Aid Station and a Main Aid Station. So you've got four medics left to run one, and three medics left to run another.

Ok. So you send one medic to fill in the line company slot so your most forward element of care--the most important--is at full strength, and you never have to send a platoon sized element out and have to tell them 'tough titty on the medic.' (Troops hate that for some reason. Go figure.)

So now you've got three medics in the FAS and three medics in the MAS, plus the platoon sergeant. But remember, both of your aid stations have to pull 24 hour ops. So that means, even if you assign draconian 12-hour shifts--and we had lots of soldiers working 12-16 hour shifts day in and day out without a single day off for MONTHS on end--at least one of your shifts is down at least 50% from where you need it to be. At a battalion aid station, which could take a Mass Casualty event at any time.

Well, you can make the problem manageable. IF you shut down an entire aid station. But that means that care could be delayed that much more.

And remember, you've got four ambulances to crew, as well, with at least two medics per ambulance. Both have to be medics because they'll have to team treat, and someone needs to stay in the back of the ambulances to treat casualties during the evacuation. The other guy drives and tries to fight the radio. (Which leaves no passenger-side security).

And you haven't taken any casualties yet.

My battalion took at least five wounded medics. Some never rejoined the unit.

We were functioning understrength for weeks at a time, robbing Peter to pay Paul, precisely because the Army WOULD'T tap the IRR to fill up vacancies in reserve component units. Active duty units had ways to obtain replacements. Despite more than 50 combat casualties (and even more noncombat injuries and illnesses, my battalion never once recieved a single replacement grunt or medic.

That cost a lot of soldiers their midtour leaves--we just couldn't send them home without crippling the unit or falling below 80% strength.

More: when unit vacancies are pervasive, the soldiers actually assigned to the unit get less and less suitable. Case in point: My battalion started the war with an experienced trauma surgeon, who worked in trauma centers in civilian life, and who had already seen many, many gunshot wounds before he entered the combat zone. But MDs can only stay in the combat zone for 90 days before being rotated out.

His replacement?

They gave us--a 100% male infantry battalion in daily combat in Ar Ramadi--an OB-GYN.

With zero ER experience except for a couple of weeks during his residency.

He didn't last long. We replaced him with a super PA, but we couldn't keep him. So we got an internist. That was good. For 90 days. Then we got an older doctor who largely had a psychiatry practice.

Again, why? Because the Army was reluctant to tap its IRR pool.

Who pays the price? The dogfaces. The grunts. The soldiers.

So that's why we work very hard to fill vacancies when a unit gets mobilized. Because every missing man hurts. Every missing man has an effect on the mission.

Now, given that it is desireable to do everything possible to fill the unit vacancies, what are the options?

Ultimately, you can do one of two things. You can detach a soldier in the MOS you need from another unit, or you can call them out of the IRR.

But what happens when you rape another unit of its troops?

Well, you haven't eliminated a vacancy. You've just transferred it from one unit to another. It's called cannibalization.

So now that unit functions at a reduced efficiency while it's trying to train up.

And when it comes time for THAT unit to mobilize in the next rotation, you STILL have the vacancies. So what do you do now?

Well, the only option left is to tap the IRR (and its similar counterparts the inactive national guard and retired reserve).

That's not abusing the IRR. That's taking care of troops.

And another thing: I'm tired of hearing IRR soldiers whine about how they're being torn away from school, work, and family.

Reserve component soldiers who drill with units have school, work, and family, too. There is no difference between yanking an IRR soldier away from his civilian life and yanking a selected reserve soldier away from his civilian life.

And so it comes down to the requirements of the mission.

Cowboy up.

Splash, out

Jason