Department of the Army Historical Summary: FY 1975

VI.

Reserve Forces

Title 10 of the United States Code identifies the three principal components of the Army as the Regular Army, the Army National Guard of the United States, and the Army Reserve. The traditional mission of the Army National Guard of the United States and the Army Reserve has been to provide trained units and qualified individuals for active service in time of war, national emergency, and at such other times as the national security requires. In addition to its federal role, the Army National Guard, as part of the organized militia, has the state mission of protecting life and property and preserving peace, order, and public safety.

The fledgling Affiliation Program, initiated during fiscal year 1974 to aid in training twenty-six reserve component battalions, proved effective during annual training exercises conducted in the summer of 1974 and gained the support of active Army and reserve component commanders as a concept that demonstrates the "one Army" policy at work. By the end of this fiscal year, eighty-nine reserve component battalion-size combat and combat support units, and every active Army division in the United States and Hawaii, were participating in the program. Twenty-four reserve component units round out active Army divisions. The remaining affiliated units will provide additional combat or support forces more rapidly. All reserve component affiliated units were given higher priorities on the Department of the Army Master Priority List; roundout units held the same priority as their sponsoring divisions.

Progress continued in consolidating Army National Guard divisions within individual states to improve command and control, training, logistic management, and administration. The 28th Infantry Division, previously incorporating units in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland, was realigned entirely within Pennsylvania in a move that also resulted in the inactivation of an armored cavalry regiment and the activation in both Virginia and Maryland of a separate brigade headquarters and headquarters company, three separate infantry battalions, and

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one separate artillery battalion. The realignment of the 42d Infantry Division consolidated elements previously located in Pennsylvania and New York entirely within New York, while the 50th Armored Division went from tristate (New York, New Jersey, and Vermont) to bistate by inactivating units in New York and reactivating them in New Jersey.

In other actions, inactivation of twenty-seven Army National Guard Nike Hercules firing batteries and eleven headquarters batteries was completed; two medical groups in Mississippi and Ohio were converted to medical brigades and given the responsibility for supervising the activities of 107 widely dispersed medical units; two assault helicopter companies were organized, one in Florida and one in Virginia; and two helicopter ambulance detachments were activated.

As of 30 June 1975, the Army National Guard consisted of 3,245 company- or detachment-size units, a decrease of 58 from the 30 June 1974 figure. The organizations in the structure were:

For the Army Reserve, activations included the 3d Battalion, 87th Infantry in Colorado; the 5th Brigade (Advanced Individual Training, Armor) with headquarters in Nebraska; a new maneuver training command at Jackson, Mississippi; and four companies in Puerto Rico (adjutant general, composite service, military police, and transportation). The 1st Battalion of the 313th Infantry in Pennsylvania and all Army Reserve units in the Virgin Islands (three military police units) were inactivated. After a long delay, the Army Reserve's civil affairs units were reorganized under the H-series modified tables of organization and equipment. In other reorganizations, six surgical and six evacuation hospitals became combat support hospitals; the 310th Field Army Support Command was reorganized as the 310th Theater Army Area Command; and an infantry battalion located in Philadelphia was redesignated as a mechanized battalion and reorganized as part of the 157th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized).

As of 30 June 1975, the Army Reserve structure consisted of 3,260 company- and detachment-size units. Major organizations were as follows:

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Completion of a new reserve component troop basis late in the fiscal year, which was developed to bring troop programs in line with force requirements as determined by the Total Force Analysis, will bring about more extensive changes in the number and type of reserve component units during the coming year.

The paid drill strength of both Army National Guard and the Army Reserve declined during fiscal year 1975. The federally recognized strength of the Army National Guard dropped from 410,682 on 30 June 1974 to 401,981 on 30 June 1975. During the same period Army Reserve paid drill strength fell from 234,886 to 225,057. The continuing decline in Army Reserve strength served as the catalyst for two new recruiting concepts to be tested during fiscal year 1976. A new area recruiting concept will be tried in Readiness Region V, and the use of Army recruiters in behalf of the Army Reserve will be tried in a project involving five district recruiting commands.

The Individual Ready Reserve of the Army Reserve declined sharply from 532,575 at the close of fiscal year 1974 to 355,099 at the end of this year. During the year the Ready Reserve was screened: 257,428 members were transferred to the Standby or Retired Reserve, and 41,843 were discharged. The composition of the Individual Ready Reserve, as of 30 June 1975, was as follows:

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The Standby Reserve's strength at the close of fiscal year 1975 was 282,696 (38,744 officers and 243,952 enlisted men). Retired Reserve year-end strength stood at 365,489 (172,076 officers and 193,413 enlisted men).

Both of the Army's reserve components recruited more minority group members. The number of blacks in the Army National Guard rose from 22,377 at the beginning of fiscal year 1975 to 31,029 by the end of the year; black members of the Army Reserve increased from 16,766 at the close of fiscal year 1974 to 24,998 one year later, 11.1 percent of the Army Reserve's paid strength. Army Reserve female strength as of 30 June 1975 stood at 15,693, a gain of 9,024 for the year. The Army National Guard, in expanding its women's program, exceeded its goal of over 6,000 women in the guard. The 6,771 women serving at the close of fiscal year 1975 included the guard's first woman warrant officer (appointed in August 1974) and its first woman helicopter pilot (graduated in June 1975).

The requirement for Army National Guard direct-hire technicians decreased from 34,463 to 32,098 during the year. The loss of 2,764 positions due to the inactivation of on-site air defense units was partially offset by a gain of 399 other positions to support more aircraft, aviators, and equipment. Authorized technician strength for fiscal year 1975 was 28,654 or 89.8 percent of the number required. Actual direct-hire technician strength rose from 28,654 at the beginning of the year to 28,831 as of 30 June 1975.

The efficiency of the Army Reserve technician program continued to be hampered by understaffing and the absence of a requirement that Army Reserve technicians, unlike their National Guard counterparts, be members of the units where they work. Proposed Department of Defense-sponsored legislation requires all technicians to occupy military positions in their units, and establishes the dual military/civilian status needed to manage the technicians and maintain the readiness of Army Reserve units when mobilized. Little relief can be expected in alleviating the problem of understaffing because of lack of funds. The status of the Army Reserve technician program at the end of the fiscal year was as follows:

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To improve the management and administration of reserve components, several actions were taken at various levels. A joint working group composed of representatives from the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel (ODCSPER), Office of the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, and Office of the Chief, Army Reserve, sponsored by ODCSPER, was organized in February 1975. Required to develop an enlisted force objective for the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve, the group completed its work in June 1975 and began coordinating a report of its findings within Headquarters, Department of the Army, and selected field commands. Approval of long-range enlisted objectives for the reserve components will provide the basis for their fuller integration into the enlisted personnel management system. In other developments related to enlisted personnel management, the Army adopted a discharge program that permitted the release of unsuitable and poorly motivated enlistees before their entry into initial active duty for training. Procedures were also simplified for processing and disposing of reserve component personnel who were AWOL during initial active duty for training.

Improved management of Army Reserve officers was the goal of The Officer Personnel System, The Army Reserve (TOPSTAR), which began testing operations in November 1974. TOPSTAR emphasizes centralized management, career development, and optimum use of each Army Reserve officer. It provides for the rotation of officers to career enhancing positions within Army Reserve troop program units and the Individual Ready Reserve.

Development of the Standard Installation/Division Personnel System-Reserve Components continued during the year with the approval of an economic analysis of the system and the publication and staffing of a detailed description of functions the system would have to perform. Prototype testing has been authorized and the test units selected-the 96th Army Command and the Indiana Army National Guard. Another new automated management system, the joint Uniform Military Pay System-Reserve Components was extended throughout the Army National Guard and a portion of the Army Reserve. Implementation in the Army Reserve should be completed during fiscal year 1976.

In the fall of 1974, the Reserve Components Personnel and Administration Center assumed responsibility from U.S. Army,

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Europe, and U.S. Army, Pacific, for the administration and control of approximately 3,300 members of the Individual Ready Reserve who then resided in Europe and the Far East. The center also administered newly established Army Reserve dual component control groups, which for the first time provided a valid list of reserve officers and warrant officers who were serving in the active Army as enlisted men. By the close of the fiscal year 1,567 such persons had been identified. During the past fiscal year, the administration center completed the transfer of military personnel records of some 300,000 former guardsmen to the National Records Center, General Services Administration. The active files of 30,976 officers and warrant officers serving in the Army National Guard were transferred to the National Guard Bureau.

Equipment and Maintenance

Reserve components continued to improve during the year terms of equipment modernization: the dollar amount of equipment issued increased slightly from $256 million in fiscal year 1974 to $272 million in fiscal year 1975. Withdrawals and diversions to meet Middle East demands created critical equipment shortages of such items as standard medium tanks, self-propelled artillery, radars, tactical bridges, tactical radios, and other communications items. The number of aircraft on hand, however, continued to increase. The Army National Guard aircraft inventory rose from 2,230 at the end of fiscal year 1974 to 2,428 at the close of the current fiscal year. The number of Army Reserve aircraft rose from 476 to 536 during the same period.

EQUIPMENT STATUS, RESERVE COMPONENTS
(in billions of dollars)

Maintenance in reserve component units compared favorably with the active Army for most equipment items. By the end of the year newly overhauled equipment with an acquisition cost of $99 million had been added to the inventory of Army National Guard and Army Reserve units under the reserve components dedicated maintenance program, but as in fiscal year 1974, shortages of items and diversion of certain assets to foreign military sales hindered deliveries.

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The Army Reserve military construction program for the year amounted to $43.7 million, an increase of $3 million over fiscal year 1974. An additional $23.2 million carried over raised the amount available to $66.9 million, which was less than the $73.2 million for the Army Reserve's construction program in fiscal year 1974. The amount actually obligated during the past fiscal year was $46.2 million, $3.8 million less than the 1974 figure. Cost escalation, more Army Reserve aircraft, expanding equipment inventories, and more stringent building codes resulted in an increased construction backlog for needed facilities-from $338.4 million at the end of fiscal year 1971 to $401 million at the close of this year.

During the year the Army National Guard military construction program was allotted a total of $61 million–$59 million in new obligational authority and $2 million in carry­over appropriations. This was a substantial increase over the $38.2 million available in fiscal year 1974. The guard obligated $55.3 million for military construction during the year. At the close of the year there was a construction backlog of $552 million, sixty percent of which was for armories. (Inadequate armory facilities used by over 700 Army National Guard units has resulted in a waste of training time, lower morale, loss or damage to supplies and equipment, recruiting and retention problems, and an overall decline in unit readiness.) The remainder of the backlog was for administrative and logistical facilities, state operated training sites, and a number of semiactive Army camps used for annual training.

The overall readiness of the reserve components continued to improve during fiscal year 1975, with over half of the major combat units meeting minimum readiness goals by achieving and maintaining company-level proficiency. These units included four of eight divisions, eleven of twenty-one separate brigades, and two of three armored cavalry regiments. In contrast at the close of fiscal year 1974 only one of the separate brigades had attained company-level proficiency. This improvement in the readiness status of the reserve components took place despite shortfalls in Army Reserve strength, the lack of substantial improvement in the equipment status of reserve and guard units, and a slight decline in the readiness of the

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National Guard's 28th Infantry Division and 42d Infantry Division resulting from their reorganization from multiple state to single state units.

Unit training was enhanced by the Affiliation Program, which for the first time included support units and eighty-nine reserve component battalion-size units at the close of fiscal year 1975. Congressional restrictions on overseas travel caused the cancellation of overseas training exercises scheduled for a number of reserve component units. Within the continental United States, thirty-one units plus members of the Individual Ready Reserve participated in LOGEX/RC-75 during the first half of June 1975. The objective was to train participants in a conventional, limited war situation. United States forces consisted of an independent corps of three divisions and a separate infantry brigade. Participants followed the latest logistical doctrine, including echelons-above-division, direct supply support, containerization, and the CONUS Wholesale Logistics System.

Because of travel restrictions and cutbacks in Army service school curricula, more reliance was placed on classes taught at the unit level and within each Army area. Training of individuals in new military occupational specialties—required by the conversion of units to new tables of organization and equipment—was slow because not enough active Army instructors were familiar with the older equipment used by reserve component units.

The Army National Guard, in its role as the organized militia, responded to a record number of calls by civil authorities for assistance in protecting life and property and preserving law and order. A total of 15,945 guardsmen from 41 states were employed in 216 separate incidents during the year.

The largest number of call-ups (138) was because of natural disasters—66 floods, 24 snowstorms, 21 tornadoes, 20 forest fires, and 7 windstorms and hurricanes. Other emergencies, such as the need to supply water, search and rescue, traffic safety, disaster relief, and airlifts, brought guardsmen into state service on 65 other occasions with 10,576 guardsmen from 37 states participating.

The Army National Guard responded to 13 civil disturbances in 9 states during the past year; 5,369 guardsmen were involved. These call-ups involved 9 incidents of striking em-

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ployees or disturbances in correctional institutions, 2 incidents of Indian groups occupying buildings illegally, 1 school busing incident, and a disorder at a rock music festival. Units with civil disturbance control missions conducted up to twenty hours of refresher training. Key people in these units continued to receive special leadership training. Also, 217 National Guard officers attended the Civil Disturbance Orientation Course offered at the Army Military Police School, Fort Gordon, Georgia.

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