Why does the US have a part time air force/army?

Question

Chances are they will not be as trained and skilled as full time pilots.

Does this not ring alarm bells with anyone?

Plus, i heard that the British Army reserve (TA) is put in the same ranks as the normal British Army to 'beef' it up a bit. So you have highly skilled people and under skilled people working together to perform to a relatively high standard.

Is it true that whole companies of part-time soldiers from the US are left to their own devices and are not surrounded by highly trained forces?

Does this not shed a little light on these friendly fire and abuse allegations?

frankturk.. please, i offer no criticism of any particular armed force, just how it is deployed, when i heard the different way the UK & US forces are deployed, i was surprised - to say the least - that the US has not generated a system similar to the UKs. Mixing troops to get a group of people with a high average level of training would be much better than letting part-timers run riot on their own.

This is a problem with planning (for the US, and the UK people that get shot) rather than a problem with the abilities of any individual.

Devil Dog '73 : You appear not to have read the question. I did not say it would be a bad idea for inexperienced troops to be mix with inexperienced troops. On the contrary I suggested that was a better way of doing things.

Rather than having large numbers of under trained people running around the place.

'Rookies' should stand side-by-side with more skilled personnel. This would enable the rookies to absorb standard knowledge (known only to full-timers) much quicker and therefore be of more us to its army in general.

I'm not sure what you used to draw your conclusions to of my logic.

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Can I quickly clarify something?

I have no intension of doing any ‘silly sniping and name calling’(Grannygrumps) I have, or believed I had, heard of two ways of using a reservist army force. One seem quite well though out, the other didn’t. I hope that any national force is willing to change and adapt to the posed threat, even if that means change structures and regulations – I asked this question to find out if what I had heard was correct.

And now I know that not all of it was.

germanrose20's : Thanks, the stuff I wanted to hear, it a relief to hear that you are integrated into regular forces that have the ‘experience of the area’. But is that just for the ANG, or for all troops?

Answer 1

To answer your ORIGINAL question "Why does the USA have a party-time Air Force/Army?" ;

Because having a FULL time military of the size needed would be cost-prohibitive !! We can have an active duty force of 2 million, and then another 2 million in reserve.. and we only pay the reserve for about 50 days per year.

ALL reserve units going on active duty go thru a 30 day training period prior to being deployed to bring them back up to currency.

And regarding pilots... RESERVE pilots often fly for the airlines and gain more flight time that an active pilot could DREAM of.

Answer 2

Sometimes T.A are put with Regs.

Mostly they are left with their own regiments and battalians as they perform better under their own command.

Reserve Forces are still very well trained and are mostly not given the same responsibility as regs.

At the end of the day, the Pilot in the thunderbolt was given unclear instructions , it dosent matter that he was reserve, a full time pilot would have been capable of making the same mistake, and it wasnt even the pilots fault if u ask me.

Ever here of SGT Steve Roberts of the Royal Tank Regiment, he was killed by his own soldier who hadnt recieved adequate training on the gun from the warrior APC. These were British not Yanks, so dont be so quick to bring down Reseve forces. After all they Volunteer to do what they do, they dont have to.

Answer 3

First off any soldier , active or reserve, should know their job. We all attend the same schools for military specialty training. Reserve soldiers may not get to employ this training as often as active duty, so they may not be as "fast", but they know what they are doing for the most part. Reserve and national guard soldiers are also used to doing their jobs without all the equipment that they should have. In other words , we adapt to the situation at hand.

I've heard many active army soldiers complain about not being able to do a job because they don't have all the equipment. Reserve and National Guard soldiers adapt to, and overcome these types of situations.

Answer 4

The National guard and the reserves go through the same training as the active duty in boot camp and technical schools later. The only difference is that the air force has more time to complete their training, on a typical drill weekend we are bombarded with training to complete so we still get the same training.
Plus when we deploy it is almost allways in a mixed group of active, reserve, and guard. Even if we deploy overseas we would be integrated into a unit allready there with experience of the area and be clued in.

Answer 5

With all due respect, OPEN A BOOK and stop watching CNN. I suggest you begin to answer by reading the United States Constitution, and books on the revolutionary war.

Amendment II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

The U.S. Military in all its forms, be Active, Reserve, or National Guard is trained to the highest standards. Trust me it will not be the military or the militia that lets this country fall... NO I AM SORRY TO SAY IT WILL BE YOU AND SPOILED AMERICANS LIKE YOU. THE CLOCK IS TICKING ON OUR PRIVILEGED LIFE.
And I for one look forward to the day when this happens so I can see you beg for our protection, if you can live 3 hours without McDonald's and PS3.

Answer 6

You have several levels of reservists, you have those who were serving soldiers and are reservists in the British case the TA, these men are not amateurs but are trained to a high degree. They are used to bolster regular troops and do a very good job. You have had some really interesting answers from people who understand the military. Please let this silly sniping and name calling stop. War is not a game, people die in horrible circumstances and many are traumatised by what they see and experience. As for the young pilot involved in the friendly fire, he will live with what happened for the rest of his life, as will the widow of the soldier he killed. The British MOD lied and lied again to this brave lady. I believe the young man should be allowed to give evidence to expose those who really caused this tragedy. A mirror image of the one that killed other British soldiers in the last Gulf war. Please let us not forget a similar occasion in that war when 22 young American Marines were killed by their own airforce whilst resting in their barracks! Had lessons been learnt from these awful occurrences and had those in charge not put their own positions first and tried to cover up what had happened, measures could have been take to prevent it happening again.

Answer 7

In times of peace, the US's national guard and reserves are given the chance to lead a normal life of job, family, college, whatever, and still be serving the country with the benefits attached. They recieve the same initial entry training, and are just as good.

In times of war, they are called on to serve the nation and deployed where needed. They have adequate training and have practiced it. No matter how much training you recieve, combat is going to be different and challenging.

I've got faith in those troops. I know a lot of them. They're trained, they're skilled, and they are good at what they do.

Answer 8

Traditionally, the National Guard part of our defense system has only been used during local upheavel such as floods, riots and earthquakes. Unless some thing like that was going on and they were called out, their duty consisted of showing up one weekend a month and two weeks a year for training. Naturally, they only get paid an amount equal to that amount of time and it saves our government a great deal of money. Since back at the end of the war in Vietnam, our regular forces have been downsized to the point that we don't have enough troops to throw a decent war so they had to call up the part timers. Commonly referred to as Weekend Warriors, the regular forces have always thought of them as very inferior but they are now right in the thick of fighting. Obviously, this is another instance of getting what you pay for. My concern is that they are there as cannon fodder/warm bodies and are not sufficiantly trained to be facing combat. I recently saw a report on TV where a National Guard company was supposed to be leading and protecting a convoy of civilian truck driver on their way to deliver supplies to a certain area. The guard soldiers took a wrong turn and led the trucks through a very hostile Irag neighborhood on a dead end road. Of course the locals knew they would have to turn around and drive back through and had heavy artillary waiting for them. One of the truck drivers taped the entire scene as they were fired on, the National Guard troops ran off and left the trucks and the truck drivers where pulled from their trucks and slaughtered. The driver taping was shot through the arm and was the last driver they came for. He knew he was going to die and kept trying through radio contact to get the guardsmen to come back and help but they wouldn't. Finally, a helicopter gunship showed up and backed the insurgents off so they could get the last man out alive. The NG soldiers never returned although they were heavily armed and could have been a tremendous help. They were named in the story and where they were from in the US but I don't remember that now, just that they were total cowards and didn't perform their duties. At the time of the report, no one had been punished although in my not so humble opinion they should be court marshalled and shot. In Kansas where I live, when a guardsman is killed his family receives $750,000.00. They may be worth more dead than alive.

Answer 9

No two servicemembers will ever have the same level of skill & training. By your logic, we should not send graduates from military training schools into the field with more experienced troops, because they aren't at the same level. How then, would you suggest, to get the rookies trained up to the 'required' experience levels?

The 'highly skilled people' are the leaders. The 'under skilled people' are the subordinates, following the orders, instructions and training of the 'highly skilled people'. Even with regular troops (non-reservists), this happens every day.

Answer 10

The part time forces as you refer to them have been around for centuries.In england we used to call them Yeomanry and in other countries Militia.The american pilots are not all full time,They have the air national guard.These people are trained and serve alongside regular forces and in some cases(doctors being one)are better qualified.I had family who served in the TA and all of them had had regular army service though this was not the norm.It seems to me that most criticisim of the armed forces of both UK and USA come from people like you with part time brains