Stultz on Army Reserve birthday: USAR provides indispensable capabilities

 

On April 23rd the United States Army Reserve proudly celebrates its 104th Birthday. For 104 years, the Nation has entrusted the Army Reserve to help preserve its peace and freedom, providing indispensable capabilities and strategic depth to the Total Force.

The first Army Reserve Soldiers were a small coterie of medical personnel providing a much needed capability to the Army in 1908, based on tough lessons learned in previous conflicts.  Today, the Army Reserve continues to learn and grow while supporting the Nation’s latest conflicts and theater engagement missions.  Through ten years of conflict, we have become an essential part of the Army’s operational force, providing key enabling capabilities including transportation, logistics, engineering, security, medical, civil affairs support and many more.
Those first Citizen-Soldiers provided the Nation with a much-needed reservoir of skilled medical professionals to be called upon in times of national emergency. Today, the Army continues to rely on the vast array of unique skills that Army Reserve Soldiers bring to the table from their civilian and military experience. 

This demand for skills possessed by Reserve Soldiers supports the United States’ defense strategy.  A new era of increased reliance on the Army Reserve has emerged. Around the globe today, thousands of troops continue to provide critical capabilities and essential functions that the active component needs for mission success.
Looking to the future, the Army Reserve is committed to maintaining its current role as an essential part of the operational force. We will continue to provide predictability to Soldiers, Family members and employers by cycling Soldiers into the operational force using a five-year, supply-based ARFORGEN strategy, or similar cyclic readiness model.  As operations draw down in Afghanistan, we will continue to use units in their available year to support theater security cooperation missions and mil-to-mil engagements, supporting the Army’s increased focus on shaping operations.
Over the next few years, we will work with the Army to review capabilities and requirements to ensure the right force mix for the Army of 2020.  We will focus internally on rebalancing our force and retaining some of the key talent leaving the Army as it downsizes as part of a continuum of service.  The next few years will be challenging, but knowing the value and positive investment that is the Army Reserve, I see this as a time of great opportunity for us.
My wife Laura and I thank you and your family for your service, sacrifice and contributions to making the Army Reserve what it is today:  An Enduring Operational Army Reserve providing Indispensible Capabilities to the Total Force!

 

JACK C. STULTZ
Lieutenant General, United States Army
Chief, Army Reserve and Commanding General,
United States Army Reserve Command