RC Forces on Active Duty Decline

The number of Reserve and National Guard troops on active duty has dropped from 220,000 to about 138,000, and officials say this decline will continue. Although the pool of untapped RC troops is still high in number, fewer and fewer members with needed support skills, such as military police, civil affairs specialists, and truck drivers, are eligible for activation. This results from the increasing numbers of those troops that have been involuntarily mobilized and are nearing the 24-month maximum call-up limit set by the administration. “No individual will have more than 24 months cumulative on active duty, Guard or Reserve,” Gen. Peter Pace, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on June 29. The Reserve Components, mostly Army Reserve and Army National Guard, currently contribute about 35 percent of the troops in Iraq.