When Les Sklenar joined the U.S. Army Reserve in 1973, the possibility of multiple deployments to Vietnam was remote.
“Back in those days, most active Army officers had no concept of what a reservist did,” said Sklenar, a retired 29-year veteran lieutenant colonel living in Baltimore.
The same could not be said of Tim Ryan, a newlywed transportation officer in the reserves who has lost a job and had to endure 18 months away from his wife during two deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We?re just like everyone else in that we work 40-plus hours a week and with deal with a family, but we do it knowing that at any moment we could be deployed,” said Ryan, of Linthicum.
The Army Reserve celebrates its 100th anniversary on Wednesday. Since its inception, the reserve has constantly evolved in its role and training regiments, as today?s reservists are more likely to be called up and sent into battle than at any other time in history.
“The old adage of the weekend warrior back in the 1970s ? that?s pretty much gone,” said Maj. Jeff Weir of the U.S. Army Reserve Command.
ROOTS
The Army Reserve started on April 23, 1908, as a unit of medical personnel needed to fill a doctor shortage during World War I.
Over time, reservists helped in major conflicts such as World War II and the Korean War, as well as domestic missions such as the Civil Conservation Corps during the 1940s.
In fact, the first general on the beaches of Normandy during the D-Day invasion was a reservist ? Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
Reservists are typically specialized in a certain area such as medical, legal, training, civil affairs and military police support.
“They provide the kind of jobs that are required in modern warfare, and provide support that most units don?t use as much,” Weir said.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the reserve has swelled to 190,000.
CHANGING TIMES
When the first Persian Gulf conflict erupted in the early 1990s, the Army began to look at its reserve differently, requiring reservists to be better-trained and battle-ready, said Sklenar, 65, who was a Special Forces commander.
Fort Meade is the headquarters of the First Army Division East, which is responsible for training reservists stationed east of the Mississippi River.
Brig. Gen. Blake Williams, the interim division commander and a reservist, said training has evolved to better train reservists and in quick fashion, as the war on terrorism has required more from the reserve.
“We no longer have reserve training, we have Army training,” he said.
When Ryan first joined the reserve in 1994, it was the classic prescription of one weekend a month, two weeks a year for training.
But post-9/11, Ryan is now getting weekly training as well as more deployments.
“The most difficult thing I?ve had to do was leave my wife and family,” said Ryan, who deployed six months after he was engaged. “She knew before we married that I was shipping out, but you can never plan enough.”
When Ryan was first called to duty in 2003, his employer ? which he would not name ? wanted a resignation letter because his absence was detrimental to the company.
“It was my job or my military career,” he said.
His second deployment in May 2006 went better, as his current employer was more understanding.
Williams said the Army is working with employers to ease worker shortages, as well as offering legal support to reservists to lose their jobs.
“We don?t have [improvised explosives devices] out in the street, so for us needing manpower to do our mission is in [the employer?s] best interest to support their employee?s military service,” he said.
The Army is also trying to limit deployments to once every five years and increase notification to reservists, though Williams said more work needs to be done. Ryan had 48 hours? notice during his first deployment and 10 months for his second.
When asked why they joined the reserve, Ryan, Williams and Sklenar had the same answer ? they wanted to serve, even in the face of sacrifice.
“You don?t wear this green suit because you want to do something on the weekends,” Williams said. “You do it because you want to be a patriot.”
