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Senate Armed Services Committee reviews issues with reserve chiefs

  • Published
  • By Col. Bob Thompson
  • Office of Air Force Reserve
WASHINGTON --  Mobilizations, deployments, sustainability, transformation and civilian employer support were the highlights on the minds of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services during testimony about U.S. reserve forces. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs Dennis M. McCarthy and the seven reserve component chiefs met with the senators May 12.

Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia chaired the meeting for the Subcommittee on Personnel along with Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina at the Russell Senate Office Building. The purpose of the meeting was to receive testimony on reserve component programs and the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal 2011.

"The 21st Century security environment requires military services that are flexible - capable of surging, refocusing and continuously engaging without exhausting their resources and people," said Lt. Gen. Charles E. Stenner Jr., chief of Air Force Reserve, in his testimony submitted to the committee. "In this challenging environment, the Air Force Reserve has never been more relevant."

General Stenner presented written and verbal statements as well as answering questions from the senators attending the hearing. Reoccurring themes from the senators focused on operations tempo and the effect that nine years of combat operations have had on reservists and their civilian employers.

"Reservists have relationships with three basic entities - family, civilian employer and military employer - what I like to call "The Reserve Triad," said General Stenner."Helping our Airmen preserve these relationships is critical to our sustainability."

Having previously served as the assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs in 1984, Sen. Webb said that he was part of the original effort to transform the reserve component programs from the Cold War model to a new posture that is designed to fight asymmetrical threats.

"Air Force Reserve Airmen are being integrated into a wider variety of missions across the full spectrum of Air Force operations," General Stenner said. "Indeed, the Department of Defense is considering using reservists from all services to perform missions utilizing their unique civilian skill sets."

Sen. Graham, who serves as a colonel in the Air Force Reserve, expressed his concern that many of the laws that protect reservists were written for a Cold War force and that those laws should be updated to reflect the expeditionary nature of today's requirements. Sen. Webb followed this up with questions about employer relations and the stress of deployments on reservists and their civilian jobs.

"We have very strong relationships with civilian employers," said General Stenner. "We host them for 'bosslifts' and engage with the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. We're part of the fabric of American culture."

Secretary McCarthy said that supporting reservists' families and employers is vital to ensure that they continue to support reserve programs. He cited full-time healthcare options for reservists and their families as an attractive retention tool and a valuable incentive for continued support from civilian employers.

Secretary McCarthy said his team is investigating this and other programs that could better accommodate the "on-again, off-again" nature of reserve service to provide better predictability and support to reservists, their families and their civilian employers.