Reserve Component Personnel Issues: Questions and Answers

Lawrence Kapp
Specialist in Military Manpower Policy

The term "Reserve Component" is used to refer collectively to the seven individual reserve components of the armed forces: the Army National Guard of the United States, the Army Reserve, the Navy Reserve, the Marine Corps Reserve, the Air National Guard of the United States, the Air Force Reserve, and the Coast Guard Reserve. The purpose of these seven reserve components, as codified in law at 10 U.S.C. 10102, is to "provide trained units and qualified persons available for active duty in the armed forces, in time of war or national emergency, and at such other times as the national security may require, to fill the needs of the armed forces whenever more units and persons are needed than are in the regular components."

During the cold war era, the reserve components were a manpower pool that was rarely tapped. For example, from 1945 to 1989, reservists were involuntarily activated by the federal government only four times, an average of less than once per decade. Since the end of the cold war, however, the nation has relied more heavily on the reserve components. Since 1990, reservists have been involuntarily activated by the federal government six times, an average of once every three years, including two large-scale mobilizations: for the Persian Gulf War (1990- 91) and in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks (2001-present). This increasing use of the reserves has led to greater congressional interest in various issues that bear on the vitality of the reserve components, such as funding, equipment, and personnel policy. This report is designed to provide an overview of key reserve component personnel issues.

This report provides insight to reserve component personnel issues through a series of questions and answers: how many people are in different categories of the reserve component (question 3); how reserve component personnel are organized (questions 2 and 4); how reserve component personnel have been and may be used (questions 1, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 11); how reserve component personnel are compensated (questions 8 and 10); the type of legal protections that exist for reserve component personnel (question 12); and recent changes in reserve component pay and benefits made by Congress (question 13).


Date of Report: July 20, 2010
Number of Pages: 34
Order Number: RL30802
Price: $29.95


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