Members of a country's military reserves pursue full-time civilian careers and are not on active duty, though they may be called upon at times of emergency. RAND provides military and political decisionmakers with objective research and recommendations on how to attract, train, and maintain an effective military reserve force.
REPORT
The reserve components (RCs) must ensure that reservists are not only properly equipped and trained, but also free from health-related conditions that could limit their ability to carry out their duties. This volume identifies existing medical readiness requirements, quantifies current RC medical readiness, identifies obstacles to achieving compliance, and suggests options for improving medical readiness in a cost-effective manner.
REPORT
To analyze policy options that would improve utilization of reserve forces, the authors assess how Army active and reserve forces are used. Converting billets from low-use to high-use career fields within a component could partially, but not completely, rebalance the reserve components. Converting billets from a low-use career field in one component to a high-use career field in another is unlikely in the near term, but an option in the…
REPORT
This technical report describes the benefits of reallocating certain maintenance activities between mission-generation locations and a repair network, options to support the C-130, and consolidating repair network activities to centralized repair facilities. The report also provides an initial assessment of maintenance concepts that integrate wing-level and depot-level maintenance processes.
REPORT
The U.S. Army National Guard and Reserve have more lieutenants but fewer captains than they are authorized to have. This monograph addresses the shortfall of captains, explores the magnitude of the shortfall, makes recommendations, and assesses the concepts of a National Guard academy and of requiring Officer Candidate School entrants to hold a four-year degree as feasible partial solutions to the shortfall.
REPORT
A major source of reserve manpower is the flow of enlisted members from an active component (AC) to a reserve component (RC). This volume examines how effective RC bonuses are in attracting prior service members and, in doing so, explores how AC and RC bonuses interact to affect both AC reenlistment and prior service enlistment in the Selected Reserve.
REPORT
When U.S. Army Reserve Component units experience a surge of personnel turbulence as they approach deployment, units must repeat some training, making pre-mobilization preparation less efficient and potentially increasing the extent of training that must be accomplished after mobilization.
RESEARCH BRIEF
A study of Army Reserve Component (RC) units finds that personnel instability is widespread, driven mostly by soldier losses and nondeployers, and affects training prior to deployment.
MULTIMEDIA
In this Congressional Briefing held on November 9, 2009, senior economist David Loughran presents findings about whether reservists who served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer economic hardship in their post-deployment years because of lost civilian work experience, injury, and other difficulties adjusting to civilian work life.
NEWS RELEASE
As the U.S. military continues to rely on the National Guard and Reserve for overseas deployments, making sure their families are adequately prepared for those missions is critical.
REPORT
In recent years, U.S. joint military activities have seen higher participation rates by reserve component general and flag officers, senior civilians, and senior noncommissioned officers. This report examines the preparation of these personnel for participation in joint military activities and recommends courses of action to better prepare them for joint positions
REPORT
Among the many hardships of military activation is the possibility of losing earnings, and though some research points to such a loss, other research suggests that reservists in fact earn substantially more when they are activated. The authors examine earnings reports from the 2004 and 2005 Status of Forces Survey of Reserve Component Members (SOFS-R) and those from administrative data — the Social Security Administration and…
REPORT
The Department of Defense has suggested that “blending” active component and reserve component workforces in military units must be implemented more broadly for a more flexible, capable force. This report examines existing organizational designs that facilitate integration of the reserve and active workforces, to ascertain whether changed personnel management practices are needed to further implement these designs.
NEWS RELEASE
Most U.S. military reservists see their earnings increase when they are called to active duty, contrary to the common belief that the earnings of reservists fall when they are activated.
REPORT
More intensive use of the U.S. military reserves since 9/11 has been accompanied by concerns that many reservists suffer substantial financial losses when they are activated. However, contrary to recent survey evidence, most reservists see their earnings increase when they are called to active duty.
RESEARCH BRIEF
This research brief examines whether reservists have earnings losses either during or after activation and finds that such losses are uncommon.
NEWS RELEASE
RAND news release: RAND Study Finds Most Military Reservists See Income Rise When Called to Active Duty
REPORT
Most U.S. military reservists called to active duty in 2003 have seen their earnings rise, contradicting the perception that reservists generally lose income when called to service.
REPORT
The demand for college among U.S. military reservists is strong and increasing. To continue to attract high-quality personnel, recruits could be given the option to attend college without the risk of being activated with their Reserve units.
REPORT
Given that reserve components are increasingly being called upon to provide support across the entire spectrum of military operations, the authors examine reserve recruiting and the likely challenges facing the reserve components. The policy variables the authors included in the models had sizeable and significant effects on both active duty and reserve recruiting. The authors also modeled the effects of economic and demographic…
RESEARCH BRIEF
RAND found that, for most military service members, college attendance is compatible with Reserve service. Many reservists successfully combine service with both civilian jobs and college, and use the educational benefits available to them. However, ...
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