People ask me frequently "just what is it that you do in the Army??" Other people confuse the Reserve with the National Guard, and ask me if I'm "going to the Armory this weekend".
First, let me clear up some misconceptions about today's citizen-soldier.
Today's Army is not the Army of my father nor his father. In my grandfather's time, the Army was this huge organization that had units just about everywhere and most of them trained for the "impending World War" between the "Ruskies" and the "Yanks". It was a time whereby nobody cared what you looked like, as long as you can carry a weapon and shoot. In my father's time, the Army was still large, but not as large as before, and people cared more about the "appearance and motivation" of the soldier than the intellegience and skills that the person brings to the Army. We had constant changes to our uniforms and insignia and structure to "weed out" those people that didn't look like "the ideal Army soldier".
Today's Army is more darker, smarter, and smaller. Darker, because more than a third of the force are non-white. We have more females in our force structure than at any other time in our history. Smarter, because under the All-volunteer Army concept, we're not just taking "anyone" anymore. You've got to be smart to use many of the Army's newest weapon and support systems. Many of our enlisted soldiers have Masters or Doctoral degrees; and more than two-thirds of our officer corps have a Masters degree in a "worthwhile area". Smaller, because many of the units and commands that my father remembered serving with 10 years ago, when he retired from the Army as a Sergeant First Class, simply do not exist any more. Entire Armies, complete from the Generals on down to the lowest Private, are gone. And many of those jobs and roles that those previous active duty commands and units had within the Army now belongs to the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard.
What's the difference...Guard, Reserve, they do the same stuff, right??
Nope.
The National Guard belong to the states in peacetime. They are under the control of the elected Governor of the state or territory and the appointed or elected (depending on state) Adjutant General, normally a two-star General officer. Under their direction, units exist to support the State or Commonwealth with emergency assistance, with community support and with their primary combat or combat support roles to an active duty command. One would find a wide variety of units assigned within a State or territory's command...infantry, armor, engineer, ordanace, transportation, medical, aviation and support units. Everything really except military intelliegence, civil affairs and some other specialized types of units. During a conflict, National Guard units are assigned to an active duty Division or other sized command or may be combined to create a Division-level (two star) command.
The Army Reserve belongs to the federal government in both peace and wartime. They are under the control of the Commanding General, United States Army Reserve Command (USARC), a three-star General officer soon to be at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Under this command, the various units and supporting commands train for their primary mission -- to support active duty units and commands around the world and to "integrate" themselves individually as parts of those commands. Some Army Reserve units and commands, like the ones I've been fortunate to be assigned to, have done such a great job with this "integration", that it is hard to find the "Army Reservist" from the "Active Army" member. Very few "combat" nor aviation units are part of the Army Reserve...it carries instead the bulk of The Army's combat support, logistical, intelligence, and civil-military support. Because of this fact, it is hard for an active-duty military unit or command to "go to war" WITHOUT having either individuals or entire Army Reserve units to "come with" to fight and win the battle.
Oh yeah...I forgot something. Remember how I said that the Guard does not have civil affairs nor military intelliegence units and how the Reserve have very few aviation and special forces units? Before or during a conflict, National Guard and Reserve units are "cross-attached" so that some aviation units now support Army Reserve units and commands as they are being deployed and some intelligence units then support Army Guard units and commands as they are being deployed. And sprinkled throughout both Army Guard and Army Reserve units are men and women whom are on Active Duty...providing day-to-day management, training and admin expertise, and whom serve as key advisors to the Guard or Reserve commanders....
I make the distinction on one hand, to demonstrate the differences between the two and who they "belong to" in peace and war; however, in the United States today, there's only ONE ARMY. One mission, and one set of standards. There is no longer a "Reserve standard" and a "Guard standard" which is lesser than the "active duty standard". One standard to meet. As a result, it's becoming harder to find people to meet The Army's standard as a Reserve or a Guard Soldier We're trying to find them....but at the same time, we're not lessening our standards to find and retain them.
And your employer understands all of this?? And let's you "Play Army" once a weekend and two weeks in the summer?"
First, throw that "playing Army" and "Weekend Warrior" myth out of the window, please. It was demonstrated without a shadow of doubt that the Army, like it's counterparts in the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, cannot "go to war" or "complete any mission" anywhere around the world WITHOUT its reserves. Period. Most Guardsmen and Reservists train on the average TWO weekends a month and up to 29 days a year -- and not just during the summer. If you haven't figured that out, that's TWICE the number of days that my father's peers would be "doing on the weekends" if they were in the Guard or Reserve. Additionally, thanks to Mother Nature, some Guardsmen have been pulling State duty and some Reservists have been pulling Federal duty -- active duty periods in which those soldiers perform their military roles in support of a disaster, either in this country or someplace around the world.
In the last four years, I have been on active duty for 729 days, either to support a contingency like Operation Iraqi Freedom or an exercise like Golden Quill; or to support training operations within my unit or command, supporting the Army Reserve Command (USARC) or the Army's Forces Command (FORSCOM). I have a set of skills currently in great demand by both active duty as well as Reserve Command leaders.
And no, most employers -- to include the federal government -- do NOT understand this "increased tempo" of the usage of the Reserve components. They still have, as many of it's citizens, the mindset that "Oh. You go to "drill" one weekend a month and sit around and wait for the "balloon to come up". Since Desert Storm (the first Iraqi War), that is no longer the case. Guardmen and Reservists come to "raining assemblies" (which MAY or MAY NOT be on a weekend...some units train in the evenings during a series of weeks!) ready to be possiblily be DEPLOYED somewhere in the nation or the world, with very little notice. They no longer "sit around, waiting for something to happen..."; they are working on their military skills. Because thanks to technology, a person -- not an entire unit -- can be singled out because they possess some combination of skills ("He speaks German. He can operate a truck. He understands how to use technology. He is this rank. He holds this speciality. He lives in this part of the United States, closest to an airport. THIS is the person we want!"), and be faxed (or now emailed!) orders sending him to Germany or Austria.
This aspect of being "deployable" is what a lot of Guard Reserve Soldiers are dealing with presently. They have been thinking that "unless the unit goes somewhere, I'm not going anywhere" until they receive the FedEx envelope containing orders sending them *as an individual* to either fill out an existing unit or to "staff up" a new unit being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan or some other place in the world! There's a new set of laws on the books that keeps employers from discriminating against the Guard or Reserve Soldier, keep Soliders from losing their civilian jobs, and keeps Soldiers from losing their homes and credit. Protection all the way around.
So what is it that I do?? I am a Public Affairs Officer, a member of the Army's Public Affairs Corps.
Every Army command, from the Pentagon downward, has a "command advisor and spokesman". In the smallest units, the "command advisor and spokesman" is the Commander of the unit. In Brigade Combat Teams and similar units, a Captain or Lieutenant serves as "Public Affairs Officer" (PAO), assisted by a senior NCO. In our Divisions, Corps and numbered Armies (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th and 9th Army) there are entire staffs of command advisors and spokespeople, led usually by a full Colonel, a Lieutenant Colonel, or Major and supported with a Sergeant Major, Master Sergeant or Sergeant First Class. Those people are called collectively "Public Affairs personnel" and the speciality that they have is "Public Affairs".
I serve as part of the team which represents the Command Team of the 88th Regional Readiness Command (RRC) until the summer of 2009; the organization then goes away. It's successor, the 88th Regional Support Command (RSC) continues onward at a different location afterwards. I have served as the command's civilian and military public affairs officer; as its community relations officer; and formerly as the senior Webmaster for the 88th's Internet website. I also served as reporter, photographer and on occasion as command spokesman for the Commanding General, his two one-star Deputy Commanding Generals, the two Command Chief Warrant Officers, the two Command Sergeants Major, and the two Civilian Executive Officers until the transition is complete.
From 2002-2006, I also served as the senior Public Affairs Officer in the region and as Commander of the 318th Public Affairs Detachment (Public Affairs Operations Center), headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
And what is it that PAOs do??
The major part of what I do is drilled down to three parts:
That's what I do in a very small nutshell. As a Reserve officer, I am kept pretty busy by the 88th as well as our parent Army Reserve Command (USARC) as I'm a regional resource for public affairs soldiers (especially dealing with the emergence of electronic communication and public affairs). I constantly try to get additional training to make me a better PAO and to update me on the latest concepts and tools used to do my job better. Most PAOs are kept pretty busy, to be effective command advisors and spokespeople for their Commanders or Commanding Generals.
One interesting aspect of my job is that for the last twelve years I do this "for a living" as an Army Reserve Technician. In this dual status role, I perform public affairs missions and roles during the week, in civilian clothing for the most part; and on the weekends and during "battle assembly weekends" (what used to be called "drill weekends") as well as during active duty periods, I am Lieutenant Colonel Walton.