Leatherneck Magazine

The use of the IRR is only a small part of the heavy demand the Corps has made of its reservists to conduct the GWOT, now in its sixth year. “Every unit in the SMCR has been called up, at least once,” said MajGen Davis in an interview, referring to the Selected Marine Corps Reserve, the 37,300-strong force of organized ground and air combat and logistic support Reserve units.

As of January 2008, more than 41,500 Marine reservists have been mobilized since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Many have deployed more than once.

The peak was in 2004, when more than 11,000 reservists were activated for the war on terrorism. More than 8,000 reservists have been mobilized nearly every year since then. In late January, 8,672 reservists were active.

Those numbers pale in comparison, however, to the mobilization for Operation Desert Storm in 1991, when 30,586 Marines from the SMCR and IRR were activated. That was the first significant use of the USMCR since the Korean War, when reservists made up a large part of the Marine forces that landed at Inchon and liberated Seoul.

The Marine Corps is not alone in the heavy use of its Reserve. In late January, 94,481 reservists were on active duty, most of them Army Reserve and National Guard members.

The Corps has called on its Reserve to bolster the badly stretched active-duty units, most of which are enduring a 1-1 deployment ratio, with seven months at home and seven months deployed. That is the kind of experience many of the IRR Marines at the muster had during their active tours.

But the demand on the active force would be even greater if the Corps could not use its Reserve, said Lieutenant General John W. “Jack” Bergman, commander of the Marine Forces Reserve headquartered in New Orleans. “If not for that Reserve component, they may be forced to push some of the active component quicker. We don’t want anybody to go who’s not ready,” LtGen Bergman said.

And, the general warned, reservists will be needed in upcoming deployments.

“Why are we still doing this?” MajGen Davis asked in his presentation to the Mesa muster. “This is a no-kidding world war that we never expected.” The general observed that there are times in history “in which real evil appears,” citing Nazism in Germany and fascism in Japan that triggered World War II and communism during the Cold War.

“Now we’re in a period of a new evil—

Muslim extremism. At this time in history, we have an obligation to civilization. We have an obligation to stop this force of evil. That imposes sacrifices on this generation,” he said.

Noting that the Americans who fought in World War II were called “the Greatest Generation,” MajGen Davis told the muster audience, “I think you represent a new greatest generation.

“This is an unusual time for our Marine Corps,” MajGen Davis said, because “we have within the IRR a huge pool of combat-experienced Marines. If we need them, they really are good to go. We haven’t

“Now we’re in a

period of a new evil—

Muslim extremism.

At this time in history,

we have an obligation

to civilization. We have

an obligation to stop

this force of evil.

That imposes sacrifices

on this generation.”

had that pool of combat skills since Korea,” when many WW II veterans were mobilized.

The Mesa muster was one of several regional events the Marine Corps Mobilization Command holds annually for some of its nearly 60,000 IRR members. Those attending live within 150 miles of the muster site. They are paid $190.90 for the day, said Major Winston Jimenez, MobCom’s spokesman.

Marines in the IRR cannot be mobilized in their first year off active duty and will not be called up in their last year, leaving a window of only two years for most IRR members, who leave active service after four years, Jimenez explained.

Because of those restrictions and the number already activated, it is becoming harder to involuntarily mobilize IRR Marines, he said.

About half of the former Marines who received notices in the three previous mobilizations were not recalled to active duty for a variety of reasons, including medical conditions or hardship factors, such as family, job or college obligations, MajGen Davis said. They found higher numbers of medical disqualifications for orthopedic, traumatic brain injury and post-trau-matic stress disorder problems in the later mobilizations, he added.

A number of people at Mesa raised their hands when asked if they received disability payments.

While the IRR musters are intended to

MajGen Andre w B. Davis

help MobCom keep track of its members, they also provide a wealth of information on services and aid available to the Marines.

The hallway outside the ballroom was lined with tables staffed by employees from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the Labor Department, the Arizona Veterans Department and other service organizations. Representatives from those “partners,” as MobCom calls them, spoke to the audience, urging them to take advantage of the help they have earned.

As combat veterans, they are eligible for two years of medical care through VA and can receive counseling for medical, family and financial problems and help with their taxes and in finding work, the IRR members were told.