RC Update Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Integration Mr. Matthew P. DuBois The Reserve Components of the United States are more critical to our national defense now than at any time in recent history. The operational posture of the RC, which has evolved since the Gulf War to meet ever-growing demands, presents significant opportunities and challenges for both the Department of Defense and the nation. A discussion of the RC s relevance to national security should include both resourcing and policy challenges to support this increased operationalization by addressing several essential elements. These elements include, but are not limited to, duty status reform, assessing readiness and training, mobilization process and mission assignments. As we define the RC s roles going forward DoD must always consider that reservists have civilian careers, civilian employers, and need to maintain a balance between their military service and civilian responsibilities. The department needs policies that support AC RC permeability without putting undue stresses on the individual Service members or Reserve Components. DUTY STATUS REFORM DoD is undergoing a review of the current Reserve Duty Statuses for two reasons. First, congress mandated a review to simplify the reserve duty status construct. Second, we have recognized that some level of duty status reform is needed to ensure compensation and benefits align with work performed. Since 9/11, members of the RC have become an integral part of the operational total force. The individual services and combatant commanders rely on reserve support, and the RCs continue to prove they are a cost-effective force multiplier. There are more than 800,000 Selected Reserve members in a paid status and more than 240,000 members in the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR). Section 515 of the Fiscal Year 2016 NDAA Assessment of Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission (MCRMC) directed the Secretary of Defense to conduct an assessment of the MCRMC recommendation to consolidate the number of statutory authorities by which members of the reserve can be ordered to perform duty. For years RC members received differing pay and benefits depending on which of the 30+ duty statuses their orders fell under, causing bureaucratic confusion and often gaps in benefits. According to a 2015 MCRMC report, current reserve status system is complex, aligns poorly with current training and mission support requirements, fosters inconsistencies in
compensation and complicates rather than supports effective budgeting. Additionally, the reserve status system causes members to experience disruptions in pay and benefits as they transition among different duty statuses. DoD has reviewed a construct for RC duty status reform that will reduce or eliminate impediments to training and accessing members of the RCs for active service. These barriers, extracted from multiple historical analyses, include pay and benefits inequities, programming and budgeting complications, and limited accessibility. The current inactive duty for training premise established more than 90 years ago was based on reservists serving in local units performing drills in the evening or weekends to maintain a strategic reserve posture. One duty status reform initiative under consideration would seek to establish four purpose codes: CATEGORY I: Active service, specifically military actions, response to a domestic incident, and training in preparation for category IV missions. CAT II: Active service that does not meet the Category IV requirements. CAT III: Blocks of time dedicated to readiness preparation, required training, and administrative activities. CAT IV: Activities or training performed virtually or non-resident in a non-duty status and not under direct military supervision. DoD's guiding principles for duty status reform are fiscal sustainability, pay, and benefits parity commensurate with the nature of duties performed, improved DoD access to RC forces while protecting RC members from arbitrary or capricious disruption of their civilian lives, and increased flexibility while simplifying the process of RC members. As a final goal, DoD s duty status reform initiative seeks to preserve drilling status, consolidate statues down to four categories under eight authorities, and align benefits to those same four duty categories. ASSESSING READINESS Despite progress in creating standard readiness reporting among the services, challenges remain in comparing readiness posture from one component to another. Efforts to standardize the readiness assessments across the department tend to focus on least common denominators, such as training, manpower, and equipment readiness. To get a true assessment of RC readiness, one must consider both quantitative and qualitative data. The current quantitativeheavy approach only tells part of the readiness story. And in the case of the Army, the various levels of reserve equipment modernization may result in interoperability and compatibility concerns upon mobilization. The challenge for the components and the DoD is how to better assess qualitative readiness. The Defense Readiness Reporting System, or DRRS, seeks to address this readiness assessment by reporting similar status and risk assessments for both active and reserve units. However, despite the emphasis on adaptive planning, the system may miss unique RC capabilities, primarily based on civilian skills, not reflected in standard reporting. Particularly with RC members, this drives a mission assignment question as to what is the most appropriate and advantageous use of the RC.
MOBILIZATION PROCESS While the role of the RC and frequency of usage might have changed over time, the consistent access and performance of the RCs have been foundational to our national defense. How and when to mobilize RC forces, however, has evolved significantly with the shift to a more operational posture. During the Cold War, the RC served as a strategic reserve, with members involuntarily activated an average of once per decade. Since the end of the Cold War, the use of and reliance on the RC steadily grew. For example, RC augmented the AC with about one million duty days per year from 1986 to 1989. After the Persian Gulf War, peace-keeping and lowintensity conflict increased reliance on the RC with reservists contributing an average of 13 million duty days per year between 1996 and 2001. After 9/11, according to a January 2017 report by the Congressional Research Service, the RC served 68.3 million duty days in 2005 alone. That's roughly two orders of magnitude more than the strategic reserve posture of two decades earlier. While employment of the RC has trailed off as U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan has contracted, the reliance on the RC as an operational shock-absorber for the Services has remained. This reliance belies significant improvements in RC readiness and interoperability during Operations IRAQI FREEDOM and ENDURING FREEDOM resulting in consistent access to the pool of experienced, combat-ready reservists. Even without duty status reform, there are an array of options for RC access, including some newer authorities which may prove to be force multipliers for the AC and local communities. Full mobilization provides essentially unlimited RC manpower but requires a Congressional Declaration of War. The President may also order a Partial Mobilization (10 USC 12302) as used for OEF and OIF, which can involuntarily mobilize up to one million reservists for 24 months. Also, a Presidential Reserve Call-up (PRC, 10 USC 12304) can involuntarily activate up to 200,000 members of the Selected Reserve (up to 30,000 from the IRR) for one year. The Fiscal Year 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) added two new authorities (10 USC 12304a and 12304b) which provided new ways to use the RC. 10 USC 12304a authorizes the Secretary of Defense to involuntarily activate reserve units (does not apply to the National Guard or Coast Guard Reserve) to support significant disasters or emergencies when a Governor requests federal assistance. The Secretary of Defense has delegated this authority to the secretaries of the military departments for activations of less than 30 days. 10 USC 12304b affords the secretaries of the military departments limited authority to activate RC units and individuals, both National Guard and Reserve, to support preplanned combatant command missions that are included and planned for in their service budgets. This provision allows up to 60,000 RC members to support combatant command missions for up to 365 days. These authorities have been essential in either supporting local communities during natural disasters or augmenting and reinforcing the AC overseas. Since 9/11, over 944,000 Reservists and Guard members have activated in support of overseas contingency operations. As of January 2018, nearly 34,000 RC members remain activated for such contingencies. Despite no official definition of operationalization, it is clear
that the RCs continue to maintain the combat readiness and interoperability proven over the last two decades. TRAVEL AND PAY EQUITY For many years, DoD has heard stories and anecdotes of RC members receiving lower pay and fewer benefits than their AC counterparts for similar work. However, quantifying such data in a format that permits real policy reform has remained elusive. In 2017, the General Accountability Office published a report questioning whether RC members are forced to pay out of pocket for the privilege to serve. While this report may appear to skim the surface of the underlying issue of benefits inequities, the GAO report nonetheless validates further investigation by the DoD into this crucial matter. As the RCs evolve to support operational demands, elements of travel policy expressed in the Joint Travel Regulation decades ago, may need to be revisited. Each component appears to have a slightly different list of priorities in this regard. Often these RC specific priorities may be overlooked when stacked by the Services against competing priorities. Following the 2017 GAO report, and acknowledging prior work by the Reserve Forces Policy Board, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Integration chartered an RC Travel Allowances (RCTA) working group to address RC unique concerns. The RCTA will not only seek to prioritize and rank RC travel issues but has been endorsed by DTMO as a solution to address lingering misunderstanding of the evolving operational reserve posture, as well as misconnects among multiple data processing systems. Perceptions of benefits inequities are among the top criticisms of service members choosing to leave military service in RC. RC RETENTION In addition to addressing concerns of benefit equity, retention of RC members is also linked to opportunities for employment in the private sector and seamless return to civilian employment following mobilizations. Congress passed the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act in 1994. USERRA was designed to protect the civilian employment of reserve military personnel called to active military duty. The law establishes five years as the cumulative length of time that an individual may be absent from work for military duty and retain reemployment rights. Exceptions to the five-year limit include initial enlistments lasting more than five years, periodic National Guard and Reserve training duty, and involuntary active duty extensions and recalls, especially during a time of national emergency. Specific high demand, low-density skills in the RC appear to affect readiness and capability disproportionately. Career fields such as medical, legal, and cyber have garnered much attention. Another area of frequent discussion and deliberation is the pilot shortage, reported by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. Pilot availability, retention, and training production are critical issues, creating competition and friction points between DoD and the airline industry. Because of the limited number of qualified pilots and the financial impact of unscheduled absences, the airlines have collectively been among the most vocal advocates for some process and policy reforms regarding USERRA.
As the RC has become more operational, there exists a growing demand and frequency for RC members to temporarily leave their civilian jobs to serve on military duty. This ongoing demand has brought rise to a concept called employer fatigue. Generally speaking, this term refers to the frustration of some civilian employers as they deal with schedule unpredictability and long or repeated absences from their employees who also serve in the RC. To address the broader USERRA related issues and integrate those with other DoD initiatives RI stood up a USERRA working group chaired by the OSD Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve office. SUMMARY If there were a bottom line to this discussion, it is that over the past two to three decades; the Reserve Components have more than proven themselves as ready and capable forces. This evolution from a historic strategic reserve into part of the day-to-day operating force, however, presents unique challenges in both policy and execution. To address these challenges head-on and ensure resources match requirements in a vibrant reserve construct, all stakeholders will have to work together. That means ODASD Reserve Integration, as well as the services and their respective components, the National Guard Bureau, and the states and territories will need to increase communication and engagement. This also means that support organizations within and outside the government will play critical roles in facilitating this communication and advocacy. ~ ~ ~ Mr. Dubois is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Integration in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Manpower & Reserve Affairs. In this role, he serves as the principal advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs (ASD (M&RA)) in support of the ASD's Title 10 role of providing overall supervision of the manpower and reserve affairs for the Department of Defense (DoD). He is responsible for both the seamless integration of reserve affairs across DoD and strategic engagement on all Reserve Component matters. This includes liaising with the Reserve Forces Policy Board, the Reserve Component Chiefs, and the Council of Governors as well as exercising primary responsibility for unique Reserve Component programs to include the DoD STARBASE program, National Guard Youth Challenge, international Reserve Component programs, Innovative Readiness Training, and Reserve Component Family and Employer Programs and Policy. He was previously the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Materiel and Facilities responsible for developing and exercising policy guidance and overall supervision of National Guard and Reserve materiel, maintenance, equipment, sustainability, facilities, energy, and military construction requirements for the Defense Department s seven Reserve components. Mr. Dubois retired from the Navy in 2011. He held many leadership, command, and staff positions. He is most proud to have served alongside the brave men and women of the armed forces who have always answered the nation s call to duty with honor.
Mr. Dubois is the recipient of many awards and decorations including the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, as well as other personal and unit ribbons. Gaining early joint duty credit, Mr. Dubois was born an Army brat in Paris, France. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy, Siena College, and Troy State University.