Challenges in the Navy Reserve System

According to the Navy Reserve website, “Reservists typically have the same duties as their Active Duty counterparts… As individuals and as units, Reservists serve side-by-side with Active Duty ... work(ing) in the U.S. or abroad alongside Active Duty service members.”

First, paid billets as a Selected Reservist (SELRES) are at a premium.  Consequently, there is no guarantee that a Sailor who wishes to join the Reserves will be allowed to do so in their original rating.  Much depends upon what Office of the Chief of Naval Personnel (OCNP)-driven quotas are open in any given month.  So, if the Navy already has enough, for example, Aviation Electrician Mates (AE) an AE may not be allowed to join the Reserves as an AE.  Rather, they may be told that if they wish to fill a paid billet, their choices are; Boatswain Mate (BM), Equipment Operator (EO) or a Hull Technician (HT).  Again, quotas are the critical factor, and the Navy's needs drive these.

Once in the Reserves, the Sailor will be attached to a Navy Operational Support Center (NOSC), and unless the Sailor is well informed enough to help steer the process, they will generally be assigned to a NOSC proximate to their home.  These NOSCs may be thought of as clearinghouses, from which Sailors are farmed out to subordinate Reserve Units (RU).   And here lies a second major issue:  The RU to which the Sailor is attached may not have any requirement for persons with the Sailor’s specific rate:  It depends upon the unit’s mission set.  This makes it wholly possible for our AE1, now a BM2 SELRES to be assigned to an HT2 billet. 

While all of this may strain credulity, it is, unfortunately, rather common.

Technically, the policy does allow for, "cross-assignment;” i.e., a Sailor may be permitted to travel periodically to a different RU, temporarily, to work more specifically in their rating.  However, this requires both system knowledge on the part of both the Sailor and the Reservists who are administering the RU - many of whom lack expertise in a convoluted system.  Moreover, there is an important disincentive:  The NOSC’s priority is to fill holes in their RUs. 

Third, while there are, as stated, whole “commissioned” reserve units, the vast majority of Reservists are attached to “augment” RUs.  These RUs simply feed their counterpart active unit.  So, generally speaking, not even active mobilization is a remediation. If our AE1, now a BM2 and assigned as an HT2 at the Seal Beach Reserve Center gets mobilized, they will be moving ordnance for six months once mobilized.  And, while there are other mobilizations, outside of discrete RUs, on an Individual Augment (IA) basis, the nature of these varies widely and unpredictably.

Fourth, these Sailors are expected to advance in their rating, though how our BM2 can advance to BM1, never having had an actual BM tour – either as an active Sailor or a Reservist – remains problematic.  Should that BM1somehow be sent to a ship in time of war, it seems evident that they would be experientially insufficient to the task.

Whether this is the case in other communities or not, the Reserve force has neither visibility nor obvious impact in the Surface Force.  This seems unfortunate as there are inevitably key manning issues which arise throughout a ship's life, and many of these could be remediated with the help of the Reserves.

There is an unfortunate, yet common, impression in many parts of the Fleet that Reservists spend their time collecting points towards retirement.  This is not their fault.  While this is not the wish of those Sailors who joined the Reserves to continue to contribute to the force, many of them become frustrated and sub-optimized. 

In a time of Great Power competition, all of this serves neither the Navy nor the Sailor.   It is clear that the entire nature and purpose of the Reserve system needs a bottom-up examination followed by a top-down reorganization.   As it is, Reservists, the Fleet, and the Nation are being misled.

Captain Eyer served in seven cruisers, commanding three Aegis cruisers: USS Thomas S. Gates (CG-51), Shiloh (CG-67), and Chancellorsville (CG-62).