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THE CITIZEN SOLDIERS OF THE ARMY RESERVE ARE UNIQUE, bringing to the military essential skill sets honed in the private sector — skills ranging from medicine to aviation to construction and everything in between. “Citizen soldiers stay technically sharp in the private sector,”
says Lt. Gen. Jeff rey Talley, chief of the Army Reserve. “We have the benefi t of them being exceptional at what they do because they are constantly trained and maintained to private- sector standards. Couple those high-level, civilian-sector technical skills with military training, and you’ve got a tremendous asset that benefi ts both the Army and the nation.” The concept of a federal reserve force fi rst
was realized in 1908 with the formation of the Medical Reserve Corps, created to remedy various mobilization and preparedness chal- lenges. Eight years later, the National Defense Act created the Offi cers’ Reserve Corps and the Enlisted Reserve Corps; the modern Army Reserve was established by Congress in 1952 via the Armed Forces Reserve Act. The skill sets of Army Reserve soldiers have evolved in recent years to keep up with
58 MILITARY OFFICER AUGUST 2015
Army Re- servist Lt. Col. Tam Nguyen, right, oper- ates with a Chadian army doc- tor. (previ- ous spread) USAV Palo Alto (LCU- 2032) facilitates relocation of a Yupik Alas- kan village.
a changing military and a changing world. “We’re seeing continued growth in our tech- nical enabler support to the active Army and the combatant command, executing missions around the world because the active compo- nent has had to downsize in terms of force structure and resourcing,” Talley says. “We’ve also seen an expansion of our role in defense support of civil authorities (DSCA) — we add value to DoD’s overall DSCA re- sponse eff orts every day,” Talley adds. “All of the Army’s emergency preparedness liaison offi cers are Army Reserve soldiers, embed- ded in [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], providing a critical bridge between civilian agencies, the Department of the Army, and the Department of Defense. So when you take our unique capabilities and highly trained units in the local community
PHOTOS: ABOVE, STAFF SGT. ANDREA MERRITT, USA; PREVIOUS SPREAD, SGT. SCOTT AKANEWICH, USA
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