Reserve Training: It's Not Just for Summer Anymore

A change in how the Army Reserve supports the active duty means annual training will no longer be scheduled only in summer.

Instead, it will be scheduled for different units throughout the year, Army Deputy Chief of Staff Brig. Gen. Brian McKiernan said today.

"To do these exercises that I'm describing, they're going to occur probably every quarter," he told reporters during a roundtable discussion in Washington at the Association of the U.S. Army annual conference. "It'll still be heavier in the [summer] but we will find ourselves [training] more and more throughout the year."

The change is part of the Reserve's new strategy for supporting the active-duty force as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down. Over the past decade the Reserve has functioned as part of the active duty Army, so much of it trained to meet deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan.

The new strategy will also allow Soldiers to spend more time at home. McKiernan said the majority of Reservists already can count on being home for four years and mobilized for one.

And of that mobilized year, most Soldiers will only deploy overseas for nine-months, he said.

Some of the quarterly training will include taking part in exercises with active duty forces in order to maintain their operational readiness, McKiernan said.

The Reserve's new strategy is to be ready to supply the Army with what it needs most for last-minute deployments, rather than try to have the entire Reserve at the same time for a full deployment.

"If we looked at what we're required to provide the Army annually, not every formation needs the same level of resources," he said. A chaplain unit, for example, doesn't need the same level of training resources as a medium- or heavy-truck company.

"We have to find ways to supply what the Army needs in ways that are affordable," he said. "This [also] gives us a way to continue the operational nature of the Army Reserve."