Crisis-Response vs. Steady-State the Role of the Reserve Component?

<p>Over the past six decades the active duty Air Force has significantly changed the way it utilizes Air National Guard (ANG) and Reserve manpower. The continually increasing military operations tempo (OPSTEMPO) combined with a constrained federal budget has contributed greatly to these changes. The original design for the reserves was a crisis response force for use primarily in times of war or national emergency. The primary concept for the reserve forces was to train and maintain an effective military force of citizen-soldiers with sufficient capabilities for activation to full combat-ready status when needed with little last minute training.1 These citizen-soldiers would gather periodically to conduct military training in order to maintain their combat ready skills. Since the mid-nineties however the use of the ANG and Reserve by the active duty Air Force has evolved from primarily crisis-response to utilizing them for steady-state operations. The increased usage of the reserve forces for steady-state operations has had both a positive and negative impact on both the active Air Force and the reserve forces.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>