Families: Scare Tactics Used To Make Reservists Re-Enlist
POSTED: 10:25 a.m. EDT May 24, 2004
CHICAGO -- As part of an aggressive recruiting effort, Army and
National Guard officials have warned inactive reservists that they
could face being sent back to Iraq unless they re-enlist in the active
reserves or join their local Guard units, according to a published
report.
MariAnn Curta told the Chicago Tribune in a story published Sunday
that a recruiter called her last weekend, saying her 22-year-old son
Bill -- who recently completed a nine-month tour of duty in Iraq --
could be headed back there unless he enlisted in the Illinois National
Guard.
"It's devious, it's deceptive, it's dishonest, it's valueless.," she
said. "I can't believe they'd pull this kind of fast trick on kids who
have already served."
Army Reserve spokesman Steven Stromvall told the newspaper that there
has been a problem with misleading, inaccurate and intimidating
retention efforts throughout the country in the past few weeks. He
said the Army Reserve is moving quickly to fix the problem.
"They went a bridge too far," he said.
The telephone warnings have been concentrated in four areas: Chicago,
Denver, Minneapolis and Louisiana, according to the newspaper. But
Stromvall said National Guard recruiters heard about the tactic and
began using similar techniques.
"It then spread through the country, with the exception of New
England," he said.
A spokesman for the Illinois National Guard in Springfield said he had
no knowledge of calls being made on behalf of the Guard.
Stromvall said the problem stemmed from misunderstandings with the
reserve's 700 retention sergeants about a new drive to get members of
the Individual Ready Reserve, who do not have to belong to units or
attend drills and meetings, to switch voluntarily to an active reserve
branch known as the Selective Reserve.
Stromvall said the misleading methods included telling Ready
Reservists they likely would be called up for service in Iraq if they
did not join a Selective Reserve unit by a certain date.
In Ft. Bragg, N.C., a soldier who was leaving active duty with the
regular Army was told by a retention sergeant in the processing line
that he would be sent to Iraq automatically if he did not join the
Selective Reserve, Stromvall said.
Of the 1.1 million or more reservists in the military, about 820,000
are in the National Guard or active reserve components of the
Selective Reserve and 282,000 are in the Individual Ready Reserve.
Only about 6,500 recalls of Ready Reservists have been authorized by
the Pentagon during the war, according to the Tribune.
Those who enlist in the armed forces have a minimum commitment of
eight years of service, but only a portion needs be on active duty.
The remainder can be spent either in the Selective Reserve, which
includes both the active reserve and the National Guard and requires
assignment to a unit, or the Individual Ready Reserve, in which the
serviceman or woman agrees to keep themselves ready to be called up in
an emergency but are not required to do the periodic training other
reservists must perform.
Kelly Akemann of Elgin said she received repeated phone calls recently
from a Guard recruiter warning that her husband, a Guard veteran,
could be sent to Iraq if he did not re-enlist quickly.
"I told him I thought these were scare tactics and he told me they
weren't scare tactics, these are the realities of life," Akemann said.
"I told him you don't need to raise the blood pressure of a
three-month pregnant woman. . . . Then I hung up."
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