Army to Call Up 5,000 More Ex-Soldiers in 2005
/The U.S. Army, now mobilizing 5,600 former
soldiers from a rarely used personnel pool to go to Iraq and
Afghanistan, plans to summon a similar number next year for duty in
those war zones, a senior official said on Friday. The Army also said
it plans to step up recruitment efforts to try to meet goals to sign up
80,000 new soldiers for the regular Army and 22,000 for the Army
Reserve in the fiscal year that began on Friday. The Army recruiting
command's chief acknowledged the wars were deterring some potential
recruits. To plug shortfalls in certain skills in units being deployed,
the Army has tapped the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), made up of
111,000 people who have completed voluntary military commitments and
have returned to civilian life but remain eligible to be mobilized in a
national emergency. The Army said about 3,900 of the 5,600 IRR soldiers
scheduled to be summoned to active duty already have received orders to
report. The mobilization, which began in July, is intended to yield
about 4,400 soldiers for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan in the coming
weeks and months after the Army provides service exemptions for medical
problems and other hardships. [more ]