Army Says Reservists Failed to Report

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Registered: 08-05-2004
Army Says Reservists Failed to Report
Sat, 10-02-2004 - 4:42pm
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Army Says Reservists Failed to Report on Time

By ROBERT BURNS, AP

WASHINGTON (Oct. 1) - The Army is getting a grudging response - or

none at all - from hundreds of former soldiers it ordered back into

uniform for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, although none has been

declared AWOL.



Army officials said Friday that 622 people, about one-third of the

1,765 Individual Ready Reserve members who were supposed to report

for duty by Sept. 28, failed to show up. Some requested more time.

Others wanted to be excused entirely. Some have not responded at all.

The no-show rate is approximately what the Army anticipated when it

announced the call-up last June, and officials said Friday they

believe some no-shows eventually will turn up.

That the Army has had to reach this deeply into its store of reserve

soldiers is a measure of the strain the Iraq and Afghanistan

campaigns have put on the active-duty Army. When the U.S. invading

force toppled Baghdad in April 2003, the Army thought it would be

sending most of its soldiers home within months. Instead, it has kept

100,000 or more there ever since.

Brig. Gen. Sean J. Byrne of the Army's personnel office in the

Pentagon told reporters the Army was "pretty much on track" to

getting the 4,402 IRR soldiers it expects to need to fill positions

in active-duty and National Guard and Reserve units between now and

next spring.

However, another official, Robert H. Smiley, told the same news

conference it was too early to rule out the possibility of expanding

the IRR call-up to reach the 4,402 target.

"We're going to have to track this on an almost daily basis," Smiley

said.

Smiley also said a separate call-up of several thousand more is

likely next summer or fall because there will be more slots to fill

in the force that rotates into Iraq and Afghanistan in 2006.

Members of the Individual Ready Reserve are rarely called to active

duty. The last time was 1990, when nearly 20,000 were mobilized. IRR

members are people who were honorably discharged after finishing

their active-duty tours, usually four to six years, but remained in

the IRR for the rest of the eight-year commitment they made when they

joined the Army. They are separate from the reserve troops who are

more routinely mobilized - the National Guard and Reserve.

The Army anticipated, based on past experience, that about one-third

of the IRR people it called up would be disqualified for medical or

other reasons. The trend so far bears that out. Thus the Army is

calculating it will take 5,765 call-ups to get the 4,402 it needs.

A separate problem is those who simply refuse to report. Byrne said

he did not know how many have refused, but he disavowed recent

statements of other Army officials that at least six no-shows have

been listed as Absent Without Leave, or AWOL. He would not say how

much leeway the Army will give no-shows before they are declared AWOL

and subject to prosecution.

"We're trying to deal with every individual case to make sure that

we're giving everyone appropriate time to rectify whatever situation

they may have," Byrne said. "No one is considered AWOL at this point."

A total of 3,899 IRR soldiers have been contacted since July and

given a report date as late as March 2005. Of that total, 1,498 have

asked for a delay or an exemption based on a wide range of issues

including medical, financial and personal problems, officials said.

The Army has approved about 350 of those requests and rejected 26,

said Raymond Robinson, chief of staff for the Army's top uniformed

personnel officer. He said the 26 have been told to report for duty,

and it was not clear what would happen if they did not.

Of the approximately 350 approvals, 239 were for outright exemptions,

meaning they will not have to come on active duty, Robinson said. As

an example, Smiley cited a person who is already in Iraq as a Defense

Department civilian employee. Others have been exempted for personal

financial hardships and for medical reasons.


10/01/04 17:49 EDT

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. The information contained in the

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