Quote Originally Posted by Entropy View Post
. . . If trends continue, many capable people will either quit the Guard/Reserve or not consider joining in the first place for fear of damaging their prospects for civilian employment and/or advancement. As a reservist currently myself, this concern is quite personal, particularly since I've been in high-optempo Reserve and Guard units since I left active duty.

I think there is some merit to the argument in the 60 minutes piece that by utilizing less expensive Guard and Reserve forces, all the government is doing is shifting the financial burden elsewhere - mainly onto civilian employers and the Guardsmen/Reservists themselves. I know many fine and talented individuals who've already left the service because of this issue. I don't think DoD has fully considered the second and third order effects this policy will likely create. Increasingly, I think DoD will be forced to hire more full-time technicians and ARG personnel, as well as further exploit "virtual" full timers (that the NG/Reserve have long depended on) - those that stay in status thanks to man-day money. These latter folks are a lot like contract personnel in many ways.

Anyway, I see major problems looming in the next decade because of these new policies. Comments?
An alternative point of view on this could be the following. Perhaps the cold, calculating bureaucrats have considered the impact and are viewing this differently. If RC folks are not considered employable in the civilian sector, perhaps those folks will elect to stay on active service, thereby providing the manpower to grow the active force to the new end strengths. Their vacancies in the civilian workforce can then be filled by those who are currently unemployed. This will decrease the draw on government budgets by lowered welfare/unemployment payments.

I hope that this is not the case because I suspect we will not get the right kind of fill in either world, as Entropy noted in the first part of the quotation above with regard to folks opting out of the RC.