When you sign up for the military, you are signing up for a minimum of 8 years. Here is the IRR Explained:
You can sign up for 8 years of active duty or reserve time (don’t do that – that’s a really stupid thing to do). However, most likely, you will sign up for 2 to 6 years of active duty or reserve time. The remainder of the 8 years will be spent in what is called the IRR – Individual Ready Reserve. While in the IRR, you can be called up for whatever the military needs you to do.
The latest round of recalls happened in March when President Trump ordered some of the Guard, Reserve, and the IRR to Active Duty. For some further reading on the coronavirus IRR Recall, check out this Military.com article.
Chicken Hawks sure do love soldiers, but only claim they support them.
What Is Required In Individual Ready Reserve?
From an army.mil article:
Soldiers serving in the IRR must notify HRC of any changes to their mailing address, marital status, number of dependents, civilian education and civilian employment. They must promptly answer all military correspondence.
They must also certify their medical readiness every year. Anything that impacts a soldier’s medical readiness and prevents them from being immediately available for active military service, must be reported to HRC immediately.
Lastly, IRR soldiers may be directed to complete an in-person muster, known as a Personnel Accountabilty Muster, or electronically by virtual muster. A muster is a tool HRC uses to screen the IRR Soldier.
The article also explains how they planned to muster 10,500 IRR members in the northeast in April of 2018. There was also a muster planned in Texas that March.
The most important snippet from the article above is that the muster can be done virtually. It turns out we are in the 21st century. Why aren’t all of these musters done virtually?
With a quick search, one can find the Navy is still conducting on-site musters.
At The Hawk Bawk, one of the biggest gripes about the military and government is the amount of time and money they waste. If 10,500 members of the IRR did show up to the northeast muster, how much time and money were spent on travel and lodging? How much time and money are utilized by the Human Resource Command to pull off a muster?
All to update the status on individuals and share some information, which could easily be done virtually.
Essentially, the only non-virtual part is the physical check of height and weight. What IRR soldier is going to care about that? The vast majority will laugh if they are told to lose weight.
Also, it can take up to 45 days to get paid for attending a muster. Two things to remember about the government:
- If you owe them money, they’ll take it in a heartbeat.
- If they owe you money, they’ll give it when it’s convenient for them.
Do you think a Chicken Hawk cares about the inefficiency of the musters? Not as long as the funds for the wars are still there.
Conflict or National Emergency – IRR Explained
The idea of the IRR is to call up military members when there is an urgent need. Recruiters and Guidance Counselors will tell their potential recruits to only worry if World War 3 happens. Not true.
The government will recall whenever they see fit, even though no World War 3 hasn’t happened. President Obama even signed an executive order allowing servicemembers in the IRR to be pulled in support of Operation United Assistance. Its mission was to curb Ebola in West Africa in 2014.
The articles at the beginning show the COVID-19 situation is subject to recalls. The last major “conflicts” to have IRR recalls were Operation Desert Storm and the Global War on Terrorism.
Not Exactly a Stop Loss
During the Global War on Terrorism, the term “stop loss” gained mainstream traction. A stop loss is when a military member is suppose to ETS (End of Term of Service, or simply, get out of the military), but is kept in service. This usually happens to keep a soldier in a unit while the unit is deployed overseas.
It became so mainstream that a movie, Stop Loss, was released on it. It even starred some big names in Hollywood, including Ryan Philippe, Channing Tatum, Abbie Cornish, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Again, we’ll take a look at one of the monetary numbers. From 9/11/2001 to 9/31/2009, a total of 96,000 servicemembers under stop loss were paid out $349,000,000.
In contrast, most soldiers called out of the IRR into active duty do not receive any extra money. If a soldier is held over the 8 year commitment, stop loss pay is initiated.
The argument can be made that those called out of the IRR for active duty deserve extra pay as well, if not more so.
A stop loss soldier has to wait days, months, or even a year to get out of the military. An IRR soldier has to leave the civilian life s/he has built up for up to two years.
If you have any information on whether or not recalled IRR soldiers have been paid extra, please share this information! There are a lot of disgruntled IRR soldiers out there.
Suicides In the IRR
If you are having deep, troubling thoughts, don’t hesitate to seek help.
Call 1-800-273-8255. Talk it out.
Everyone knows by now suicides in the military are a big deal. The Veterans Administration (VA) even implemented a 10 year strategy to fight veteran suicides in 2018.
One of the scariest statistics in the VA document above is the rate of veteran suicides.
However, suicides of members while in the IRR are not counted towards the Selected Reserve components. One can wonder how much higher the numbers would be for the Department of Defense suicide count if they counted servicemembers still under contract.
Hailed as a hero, late Senator John McCain blocked an attempt by the House of Representatives to help prevent veteran suicide. It’s hard to justify more spending by the government, but is it right for any organization to put a person in a war zone and then toss them to the side?
Luckily, there is a lot of support out there for Veterans, not all from the government.
The solution? Stop having aggressive, unjust, unending, undeclared wars. It’ll save more lives than any Chicken Hawk like McCain would think and cost WAY less money. Just because McCain was a POW doesn’t mean he wasn’t a Chicken Hawk.
Is the IRR Necessary?
In short, yes and no, under the system we live under now.
Since 1973, the U.S. has had an “all volunteer” military. It’s hard to call it “all volunteer” with the IRR in effect and how it is downplayed by recruiters and guidance counselors.
The draft has been held back with the IRR in place, which is a positive thing. However, one has to question the legitimacy of the draft when you read in the Thirteenth Amendment:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude….shall exist within the United States…
When “involuntary servitude” is viewed as “service to country,” it is A-OK in the eyes of the Chicken Hawk.
If there was something worth fighting for, the draft, selective service, or Individual Ready Reserve wouldn’t be necessary, would it?
Support The Hawk Bawk
Hopefully you found some use of the IRR Explained article. If you did, please consider your further support at The Coop!
Follow on Twitter: @TheHawkBawk
Like on Facebook: @TheHawkBawk
Subscribe on YouTube: The Hawk Bawk
Paypal Donation: @BLoafX