Scare Tactics Used To Make Reservists Re-Enlist
"It's devious, it's deceptive, it's dishonest, it's valueless.," she said. "I can't believe they'd pull this kind of fast trick on kids who have already served."
Army Reserve spokesman Steven Stromvall told the newspaper that there has been a problem with misleading, inaccurate and intimidating retention efforts throughout the country in the past few weeks. He said the Army Reserve is moving quickly to fix the problem.
"They went a bridge too far," he said.
The telephone warnings have been concentrated in four areas: Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis and Louisiana, according to the newspaper. But Stromvall said National Guard recruiters heard about the tactic and began using similar techniques.
"It then spread through the country, with the exception of New England," he said.
A spokesman for the Illinois National Guard in Springfield said he had no knowledge of calls being made on behalf of the Guard.
Stromvall said the problem stemmed from misunderstandings with the reserve's 700 retention sergeants about a new drive to get members of the Individual Ready Reserve, who do not have to belong to units or attend drills and meetings, to switch voluntarily to an active reserve branch known as the Selective Reserve.
Stromvall said the misleading methods included telling Ready Reservists they likely would be called up for service in Iraq if they did not join a Selective Reserve unit by a certain date.
In Ft. Bragg, N.C., a soldier who was leaving active duty with the regular Army was told by a retention sergeant in the processing line that he would be sent to Iraq automatically if he did not join the Selective Reserve, Stromvall said.
Of the 1.1 million or more reservists in the military, about 820,000 are in the National Guard or active reserve components of the Selective Reserve and 282,000 are in the Individual Ready Reserve. Only about 6,500 recalls of Ready Reservists have been authorized by the Pentagon during the war, according to the Tribune.
Those who enlist in the armed forces have a minimum commitment of eight years of service, but only a portion needs be on active duty.
The remainder can be spent either in the Selective Reserve, which includes both the active reserve and the National Guard and requires assignment to a unit, or the Individual Ready Reserve, in which the serviceman or woman agrees to keep themselves ready to be called up in an emergency but are not required to do the periodic training other reservists must perform.
Kelly Akemann of Elgin said she received repeated phone calls recently from a Guard recruiter warning that her husband, a Guard veteran, could be sent to Iraq if he did not re-enlist quickly.
"I told him I thought these were scare tactics and he told me they weren't scare tactics, these are the realities of life," Akemann said. "I told him you don't need to raise the blood pressure of a three-month pregnant woman. . . . Then I hung up."
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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