Pentagon to end limit on total active-duty time for Reserves

[Newsjock]

http://www.elpasotimes.com/election/ci_4994211

WASHINGTON - For the first time since President Bush mobilized the National Guard and Reserve after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Pentagon is abandoning its limit on the time a citizen-soldier can be required to serve on active duty.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Thursday that the change would have been made even if Bush had not ordered an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq, further straining the Army and Marine Corps.

... Until now, the Pentagon's policy on the Guard or Reserve was that members' cumulative time on active duty for the Iraq or Afghan wars could not exceed 24 months. That cumulative limit is now lifted; the remaining limit is on the length of any single mobilization, which may not exceed 24 consecutive months, Pace said.

[superconnected]

1. So basically the reservists can be changed to fulltime indefinitely

but not deployed at the same spot for more than 2 years.

[Recursion]

5. Yes, but it costs a lot more

You have to pay mobilized reservists BAH and BAS -- those are often significantly more than total base pay, and they are tax free.

[wakeme2008]

2. so you can be away from your real job 24 months at a time

this will go over like a lead balloon

[Monkeyman]

6. Companies already laying off

[harpboy_ak]

10. They can't lay off reservists on active duty

Federal law says they have to give you your job back if you are in the Guard or reserves and get activated.

One of my clients bought a fancy color Ricoh Aficio copier/printer/scanner/fax based partly on the fact that it was a machine the dealer's best repair guy knew how to fix, and he got called up by the Guard and sent to Iraq to repair radars.

The replacement they hired is, of course, totally clueless about tweaking the machine when it prints red streaks on every page.

[Avalux]

3. There it is! I predicted this yesterday:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=3082971&mesg_id=3083049

x( x( x( x( x( x( x( x( x( x(

[Ezlivin]

4. "[T]he change would have been made [regardless]"

Everything is a coincidence.

Multiple military drills on 9/11? Coincidence.
Bush family connections with bin Laden family? Coincidence.
Anthrax letters sent to those who wanted to investigate 9/11? Coincidence.
Election problems in 2000 and 2004. Coincidence.

[KingofNewOrleans]

7. So, basically, the Guard has just been

drafted.

[Luminous Animal]

8. Bingo. (n/t)

[Morgana LaFey]

9. Yeah. Won't this be a GREAT recruiting tool for the Reserves?

Damn, hope there aren't any more Katrinas comin' down the pike.

Welcome to DU!!!

[neoblues]

11. Enlistment Age Change...

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has eliminated existing enlistment age restrictions. It will now be accepting applications from meta-adults as young as 12 years of age and, on the other end, senior adults up to the age of 68 (mandatory retirement age has been raised to 80, thus allowing for 12 year enlistment periods for those at the upper limits).

:sarcasm: (i hope)


Of course, this allows for the creation of a new Field-Grade Officer Corp, "The Nanny Corps" to assist with the babysitting...

[MGD]

12. They'll be calling up prior service next. I can hardly wait.

It's easier getting out of the mafia than the military.

[Roland99]

13. I think it's time for a nationwide Dem activist effort to setup recruiting tables at Fundie Churches

Why not? Let them put their lives where their forked tongues are.

[LynnTheDem]

14. The draft by any other name...

is still a DRAFT.

And unlike the regulars, the NG & Reserves aren't going to put up with this shit.

[ShockediSay]

17. How far away do you think the real (draft) thing is away

if we keep heading in the militarists direction?

[LynnTheDem]

18. Not very.

[eppur_se_muova]

15. So this little legal quibble no longer applies??

U.S. Constitution: Thirteenth Amendment

Thirteenth Amendment - Slavery And Involuntary Servitude

Amendment Text | Annotations

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

[NobleCynic]

16. I don't think it applies

Because of the contract reservists signed with the government. Any service required has already been agreed to, legally if not in fact, and is therefore not involuntary servitude.