Department of the Army Historical Summary: FY 1971

VII.

Reserve Forces

The reserve forces of the Army consist of the Army National Guard (ARNG) and the U.S. Army Reserve (USAR). Known collectively as the Reserve Components, their mission is to provide trained units and qualified individuals for active duty in time of war or national emergency. The National Guard has two additional missions: to participate full-time in the air defense of the nation, and to provide units that are organized, equipped, and trained to function efficiently under federal or state authority in order to protect life and property and preserve peace, order, and public safety.

The Reserve Component force structure in fiscal year 1971 consisted of eight combat divisions, twenty-one separate brigades, and enough units to round out the active Army's division forces and provide balanced division forces in the Reserve Components. Because of constant commitments and requirements, contraction of the active Army, and increasing dependence upon backup forces, the priorities of the Reserve Components have risen. The assignment of early missions for many units has improved unit spirit and sense of mission. There has also been a growing rapport and understanding between the Reserve Components and the active Army.

Readiness

Several steps were taken to further the Reserve Components' ability to operate in the modern Army environment, to insure compatibility with active Army organization, operation, and doctrine. Conversion of the Reserve Components to the latest active Army tables of organization and equipment was begun in early deployment units and will progress through the remainder of the structure during fiscal year 1972. Concurrently, the force structure was reviewed and refinements to adapt it to the total force were initiated. Units no longer required are to be eliminated, and the new troop structure will be incorporated in the modernized "One Army" force.

There was progress in the Reserve Components' aviation program during the year, in aircraft deliveries, aviator and technical personnel recruiting and training, and the preparation of units to receive aircraft. A growing airlift capability is enhancing the training of maneuver units in airmobile exercises and will make aviation assets available to active Army units located near Reserve Component elements.

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Missile systems are a growing part of the reserve force. Issue of the Sheridan armored airborne assault vehicle equipped with the Shillelagh missile system was initiated to one of the higher priority Reserve Component units, and Redeye training will begin soon in anticipation of receipt of weapons. Prospects for issue of the Dragon missile system are good; Honest John will remain in the inventory indefinitely.

Reserve Component units and individuals participated in several active Army exercises in the past year.

Personnel

The Reserve Components have been able to maintain mandated strength in the conscription environment, but the absence of the draft will affect recruitment in the reserves. An analysis of the random sequence birthdate groups for enlistees with no prior service in the Army Reserve Components during the first quarter of fiscal year 1971 revealed that between 77 and 91 percent of enlistments were draft-motivated. Studies indicate that productive enlistment and retention incentives will be needed if Reserve Component strength is to be maintained after the draft is eliminated. Thus volunteer Army programs will be adapted to the Reserve Components. Both low-cost and no-cost incentives will be used to encourage volunteers.

The Army continued to implement recommendations of a special board to improve the management of the Reserve Component officer corps. Of 99 recommendations, 84 were completed, 9 deleted, 3 deferred, and 3 requiring legislation were under consideration by the House Armed Services Committee.

The fiscal year 1971 Defense Authorization Act prescribed an average paid drill strength of not less than 400,000 in ARNG units and 260,000 in USAR units. When applied to the Reserve Component troop structure, this arrangement permits units to be manned at over 90 percent of authorized strength. The actual average strength of the components during the year was 400,842 for the National Guard and 261,521 for the Army Reserve.

Enlisted accessions in units during the year totaled 52,425 enlistees with no prior service and 13,133 with prior service in the National Guard, and 30,175 enlistees with no prior service and 8,027 with prior service in the Army Reserve.

The individual training status of both components in fiscal year 1971 was as follows:

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There was considerable progress in Reserve Enlistment Program (REP) training during the year. Those REP candidates awaiting training were reduced from 52,222 as the year opened to 24,117 as the year closed. The availability of additional spaces in the Army training base permitted the Reserve Components to enter 18,000 more REP candidates in training than had been programed. Beginning in March 1971, trainees from early deployment units had equal priority with active Army personnel for training spaces. By the end of the year, no Reserve Enlistment Program men of early deployment units who were awaiting training had been delayed more than ninety days.

The number of Reserve Component technicians decreased during the fiscal year from 29,899 to 29,773. The number of technicians increased in all activities except on-site defense, where Nike-Hercules deployment decreased. The following table depicts the status of ARNG and USAR technicians at the close of the year:

Adoption of new selection criteria for assignment of active Army officers as advisers to Reserve Component units has improved the quality of advice. Adviser status at the end of the fiscal year was as follows:

The Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) of the USAR is comprised of Ready Reservists who are not members of units. They are assigned to five control groups, as described in detail in last year's report. In the past year they were assigned, by category, as follows:

Materiel and Supply

Fiscal year 1971 was a banner period for the issue and modernization of equipment for the Reserve Components. Equipment valued at $727 million was issued to units, well above the $150 million and $300 million issued respectively in the two previous years. Enough rifles were received so that all combat units could be equipped with the M16

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and other units with the M16 and M14. Thus the Reserve Components are now equipped with the same rifles as the active Army. The M14 will be gradually phased out as more M16 rifles become available.

Approximately two hundred M-60 tanks were distributed to the reserve forces in fiscal year 1971 to meet training needs, supplementing the M-48 series models. Early deployment units will receive full training allowances before the close of fiscal year 1972. Issue of a new family of tactical radios was also initiated. Increased quantities of wheeled vehicles, some direct from manufacturers, were also issued. First-line aircraft were received, including CH-47, CH-54, and UH-1D helicopters. Older models were being withdrawn and replaced, so that during the year the Reserve Component fleet increased from 933 to 1,353 aircraft and was being markedly upgraded in quality.

Although there will continue to be equipment shortages, all early deploying combat units will be equipped to a level of about 80 percent of organizational equipment by the middle of fiscal year 1972, while all others in that category (up to mobilization plus ninety days) will meet that goal by the close of the next fiscal year, and the equipment status of those to deploy after M+90 will be improved.

Now that equipment is becoming available at an accelerated rate, Reserve Component units are following the same requisitioning system used by active Army units, requesting authorized equipment as needed, with the Department of the Army controlling items in short supply. All Reserve Component units cannot, of course, use, store, or maintain full levels of equipment in a premobilization status. In such a situation a unit is issued the amount of equipment—approximately 80 percent of the full allowance—to support training at its home station during weekend drills and at annual training sites. Postmobilization requirements include the additional stocks that would bring the units to full wartime authorization and provide pipeline, maintenance, and combat stocks.

Logistic management received major attention during the year under programs to control the distribution of priority materiel and equipment. A maintenance program was initiated to repair inoperable equipment, including tanks, aircraft, personnel carriers, and communications equipment, and a test program was undertaken by the National Guard to repair unserviceable vehicles from Vietnam in ARNG maintenance shops. The test is unique because the Guard is providing the labor and repairing equipment with parts supplied by the active Army. Over two hundred trucks were programed for shipment to ARNG shops in Virginia, California, and Mississippi, to be repaired and issued to ARNG units. The program will be extended to include about one thousand armored personnel carriers from Europe. The Re-

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serve Components were also designated to receive some reconditioned equipment from Vietnam.

Depot stockage procedures were reviewed to insure that early deploying units can be provided with equipment required to raise them from the 80-percent level to full authorization. With the phase-down of the active Army and the liquidation of the Vietnam War, equipment forecasts for the Reserve Components are excellent. Relatively small inventories and limited procurement of some items, however, mean that some major equipment shortages will continue despite accelerated issues.

Installations and Facilities

Reserve Component facility construction requirements are determined by the approved mandated force structure, the stationing of units within the structure based on manpower potential within the several states, and the condition of existing facilities in which units are housed.

At present, all Reserve Component units occupy some type of facility. However, these facilities range from permanently constructed National Guard armories and Army Reserve centers to leased structures of varying adequacy. The current Reserve Component real property inventory is valued at $907.4 million, of which $648 million is in Army National Guard facilities and $259.4 million in Army Reserve facilities.

While the over-all preparedness of the Reserve Components is probably the highest ever achieved in peacetime, sufficient resources to maintain the highest possible level of proficiency must be available. A fundamental resource requirement is availability of adequate, functional, self-sustaining facilities.

To provide essential home station facilities and training areas to meet the current force structure, improve unit training capability, promote unit readiness, and enhance esprit de corps and morale, a ten-year military construction plan was developed, identifying facility requirements totaling $639.7 million. Of this amount, $301.3 million would provide for Army National Guard facilities and $338.4 million for the Army Reserve. The goal of this construction plan is to provide adequate facilities for all units by 1980. The Deputy Secretary of Defense approved the concept in January 1970. The first five years of the plan provided $25 million in fiscal year 1971 and $55 million per year in fiscal years 1972 through 1975. The residual deficiency will be programed over the remaining five years. As fiscal year 1971 was the initial construction year of the program, the budget plan provided a new obligational authority of $25 million for military construction. Therefore, the funding available to support the Reserve Component fiscal year 1971 construction increment was as follows:

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With available funding, the Army National Guard was authorized construction of thirty armories at a estimated federal cost of $7.85 million. The Army Reserve program provided for eleven new centers and two center expansions at an estimated cost of $9.29 million. The status of armory and center facility requirements as of end fiscal year 1971 was as follows:

^a Fifteen hundred armories and centers require replacement, expansion, conversion, or rehabilitation of existing facilities to meet revised space criteria.

In addition, thirty-two nonarmory facilities, which provide administrative and logistical support to Reserve Component units, were authorized for the National Guard at an estimated cost of $5.89 million. The Army Reserve does not fund separately for this type of facility, since such requirements are constructed as part of a reserve center. Of the 2,479 nonarmory (administrative and logistical) facilities that support the National Guard, 2,254 are considered adequate. The remaining 225 require replacement, expansion, or alteration to correct certain deficiencies at a cost of $52.6 million.

The lack of adequate training areas continues to be a constraint on operational readiness. A survey of all 402 combat and combat support battalions was completed in April 1970. This survey revealed that 39 percent of the battalions examined have adequate training sites. An analysis of the survey identified 224 units with specific training area needs that must be satisfied. Of these, 146 units have been given recommended courses of action in overcoming deficiencies; 53 have reported that their problems have been resolved; and there are indications that more units are satisfying their needs through adjustment of training schedules and the utilization of training areas within reasonable commuting distances of the home stations that were not previously considered. Recommendations for correcting deficiencies in the remaining 78 units will be addressed after specific inactive duty training requirements for certain combat support battalions have been determined.

Base closures provide an excellent source of training area acquisitions for the Reserve Components. Reports of excess posts are closely screened, and areas which could satisfy training requirements are identified and reported to the General Services Administration for licensing to the Reserve Component that requested primary use of the

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site. The Army National Guard's programed construction of training facilities at ten federal- and state-owned or -controlled installations during fiscal year 1971 was increased from $2.57 million to $5.22 million. Backlogs of construction at the federal and state camps amount to $44.6 million for the National Guard. The Army Reserve training area requirement amounts to $28 million. As the funding levels of the military construction programs increase in the final years of the ten-year construction plan, emphasis can be placed on increased funding for construction at weekend and annual training sites.

Training

The premobilization training objective for most Reserve Component units is to attain and maintain company-level proficiency, which is verified by the successful completion of an appropriate Army training test. Some units have met this objective. Several constraints, however, work against the Reserve Components as they endeavor to reach their premobilization objectives. These are equipment shortages, limited areas available for tactical training, and insufficient training time. Further increase in training time allocations also affects the budget, as personnel costs make up a large percentage of expenditures. Equipment shortages and training area limitations were being improved at a rapid rate and are becoming less of a problem now than in previous years.

Clearly defined primary and alternate missions with readiness objectives based on operational requirements are given to Reserve Component units. The purpose is to provide a high level of motivation by insuring the commander's awareness of the importance of his role. Mission assignments are to be disseminated to all commanders down to and including separate company, platoon, and detachment levels and are to include the unit's mobilization station, readiness objective, employment-deployment mission, and area of orientation.

To capitalize on the limited training time available, several innovative programs were under way that promise to bring improved training to Reserve Component units.

The Program for Improving Readiness includes an associate unit concept involving the alignment of Reserve Component units with similar units of the active Army; a system that rounds out active Army combat units to their deployment configurations using Reserve Component units; an addition of technicians to units in order to evaluate the impact on unit readiness; and an evaluation of the recovery time required for reconstruction of a unit upon demobilization. Also included is a test of the feasibility of Reserve Component participation in active Army exercises and another test to determine the feas-

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ibility of moving into advanced unit training when a unit achieves the objective of company-level proficiency.

The Mutual Support Program is an effort to expand the associated unit idea to Army-wide application. It consists of jointly operated programs of self-help between active and Reserve Component forces. Significant growth is anticipated with the imminent publication of an Army regulation on this matter. These first two programs have resulted, in the early stages of their development, in improved individual proficiency in Reserve Component units. As further development occurs, advances in unit training status are expected to become more apparent.

The Intensive Management Program is designed to provide close management of Reserve Component assets for the early deployment units, and to provide high-level officials with information on the status of those units. Despite early difficulty in establishing an adequate data base, the program promises to become a valuable tool of management for units that must meet deployment schedules not previously required of Reserve Component units.

With continued deliveries of modern equipment and increased availability of adequate training areas, the outlook for improved training levels is good.

Management

Continued use of the Ten Point Improvement Program as a management tool for the Reserve Components highlighted problems for corrective action and led to such accomplishments as those outlined above. Under the impetus of the program, Reserve Component units have received an increasing number of visits by high-ranking representatives of the military departments, and major staff agencies have designated contact points for Reserve Component affairs. Public Affairs Program coverage of the Reserve Components was expanded through audio-visual and publications activities, briefings, visits, and awards.

Automatic data processing (ADP) entered the Reserve Component picture when the Consolidated Reserve Component Automated Personnel System became operational in September 1970, and Army-owned ADP equipment was acquired for Reserve Component brigades. Equipment for Reserve Component brigades was earmarked for two units of the ARNG and USAR; after testing the prototype units this number will be expanded to fifteen brigade-size units. Creation of a Reserve Components Army Aviation Committee in August 1970 to advise on the development of a sound aviation program assures consideration and planning for this type of equipment in the aviation area.

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Military Support to Civil Authorities

During the year, 16,668 National Guardsmen were called by their governors to state active duty for civil disturbance emergencies. These Guardsmen were used forty-three times in twenty-two states to assist civil authorities in quelling civil disturbances in cities and on campuses. National Guard forces were also ordered to state active duty seventy-seven times in thirty states to assist civil authorities during natural disasters and other emergencies. These call-ups included rescue operations during blizzards and floods; security, traffic control, and evacuation during tornadoes and hurricanes; searches for missing persons and downed aircraft; water-hauls in drought areas; air-drops of food to snowbound cattle; and forest fire control.

The ability of the National Guard to conduct operations in controlling civil disturbances was increased during fiscal year 1971. This improvement was a result of civil disturbance training, the purchase of civil disturbance control equipment, and improved planning at the state level.

In addition to the sixteen hours of annual civil disturbance refresher training conducted by Army National Guard units in past years, all units with specific civil disturbance missions completed an extra eight hours of refresher training during the period April 1-June 30, 1971. Key noncommissioned officers and junior officers in the grade of lieutenant and captain holding leadership positions in units with a civil disturbance mission received a special sixteen-hour course of leadership instruction, designed to provide increased command and control capabilities in company-size units committed to any future civil disturbance control operation. The program of instruction and lesson plans were developed by the active Army and the instruction was executed by the adjutant general of each state, using experienced instructors. The Army National Guard provided instructors and instructional material to the Air National Guard in order to initiate training of designated Air Guard units and individuals in civil disturbance control operations.

Funds were made available within the Army budget to purchase 137,598 face shields, 136,737 riot batons, and 111,244 protective vests. The face shields and riot batons were in the hands of National Guard units throughout the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The protective vests were being shipped to the states. Through co-ordination with the Army Materiel Command, XM33 riot control agent dispersers were being placed in National Guard units, and "low-lethality" items such as the baseball grenade were available to Guardsmen. The Army National Guard co-operated with the Office, Chief of Research and Development, in evaluating

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the plastic, disposable, flexible handcuff for use in mass detention situations during civil disturbance control operations.

The civil disturbance plans of each state were examined in detail by a special panel of military support experts. The findings of this study group were then reviewed by a special committee of six adjutants general who met in the Pentagon on December 1-2, 1970. This committee submitted specific recommendations which were then passed to the states under personal letter to each adjutant general. As a result of this action, fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the commonwealth of Puerto Rico agreed to standardize their civil disturbance planning and to adopt the Federal Rules for Application of Force.

During fiscal year 1971 a communications study group was convened to survey Guard communication needs based on civil disturbance control. The study fixed the status of communications and recommendations for standardization and improvement. A selected group of military support plans officers reviewed the study, and final recommendations will become policy matters for implementation in fiscal year 1972.

During the fiscal year, 403 National Guard officers attended the civil disturbance orientation course at the Military Police School, Fort Gordon, Georgia, and 275 National Guard officers were programed to attend during fiscal year 1972.

The National Guard Bureau participated in a Department of the Army civil disturbance study during this fiscal year. Many of the actions taken to improve civil disturbance training and equipment stem from this study. The exchange of ideas and the co-operative efforts demonstrated during the course of the study were of mutual benefit to the National Guard and the active Army.

Members of the Office of Military Support to Civil Authorities visited thirty-six states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico during the year to observe civil disturbance training and command post exercises, to assist in the preparation of civil disturbance operations plans, and to participate in civil defense conferences or seminars and related aspects of the military support field.

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