Quote Originally Posted by Bob's World View Post
I haven't seen anything in the news on this (like there has been on the whole Stop-loss issue), but it sounds like we may be relying far too heavily on the legal strings we have on these vets and dragging them back in with what is essentially a draft, instead of doing the hard work to recruit non-vets to serve.

What say you, SWJ community? How prevalent is this?
Very prevalent, from what I saw. Like your son, I made sure to stay in long enough to satisfy active and reserve time so as to not owe any further IRR time because I, apparently also like your son, wanted to retain some degree of certainty in my future plans. I reiterate, I did this so that I would not OWE any further IRR time. This is not "essentially a draft" and not some technical legal gotcha. This is a fulfillment of a well-understood obligation that we took without mental reservation or purpose of evasion - even if a few years down the line we wished that we hadn't. But I will add that my parents viewed the issue similarly to how you worded it. I didn't and still don't, but I'm not a parent.

Good on your son for planning ahead, rather than being among the many who ignore the commitment they incurred and whine about it later when Uncle Sam comes knocking to collect the time owed.

My only gripe about IRR is that it is counterproductive. I've seen guys come back who were out of service for two years. They remember nothing and they are treated like cogs on an assembly line. They go through a ridiculously inadequate train-up at some replacement center where their "training" is little more than a series of block checks. They are inundated with needless equipment, excessive paperwork, confusing guidance, and then end up doing some BS year of service that could easily be performed by an E3 on permanent profile. When it's done, they do the reverse of the same process and leave the Army with a bitter taste in their mouths and will surely never return. At least people who ETS for the first time often come back. I doubt IRR folks ever do because of how poorly they are treated.