Big, fucking, disaster.
From the Navy Times, no less:
A new government report says the Pentagon could run out of reservists if current deployment rates continue — even as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs has confirmed plans for the next call-up announcement in November.Why does the Navy Times hate our troops?
Over the past three years, the military has deployed 20 percent of its active-duty force but closer to 28 percent of its reserve forces, and officials say they’re concerned about long-term effects on recruiting and retention. More than 40 percent of troops in Iraq are reserve and National Guard members, a percentage expected to climb to nearly 50 percent in the months ahead.
If the Pentagon sticks to its policy of mobilizing individual reservists for no more than 24 months total, “it is possible that DoD will run out of forces,” the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, reported in mid-September.
“There are already indications that some portions of the force are being stressed,” the GAO said. “For example, the Army National Guard failed to meet its recruiting goal during 14 of 20 months from October 2002 to May 2004 and ended fiscal 2003 approximately 7,800 soldiers below its recruiting goal.”
Equally significant is the growing stress on reserve-component retention in certain skills that are tapped repeatedly for operational missions. While the Army faces the greatest levels of involuntary mobilizations over the next few years, all the reserve components have career fields that have been highly stressed, the GAO said.
