Characteristics of Selected Reserve Accessions

FY 1998 Reserve Component recruiting results for NPS and prior service gains and assigned end-strengths are shown in Table 5.1.  In FY 1998, the Reserve Component recruited nearly 135,500 enlisted persons compared to the Active Component's almost 180,500. The Army Reserve (USAR) is again the largest Reserve Component recruiting program, followed by the ARNG.  The USAR recruited more than 15,000 NPS enlistees, approximately 8,000 less than the ARNG.  However, the USAR recruited just over 30,700 prior service recruits, almost 10,000 more than the ARNG.  Recognizing the importance of experience provided by qualified prior service personnel to the Reserve Forces, Congress established additional prior service accessions for the ARNG as part of the Army Guard Combat Reform Initiative:  "The Secretary of the Army, shall increase the number of qualified prior active-duty enlisted members in the Army National Guard."(5)   While the legislation applies only to the ARNG, the Secretary of the Army has required the Army Reserve to comply, which would explain the large number of prior service accessions to the USAR and the ARNG.

Selected Reserve recruiting achievements increased slightly, adding nearly 2,000 enlisted accessions from FY 1997 to FY 1998 (from almost 144,000 to nearly 146,000).  The increase was limited to the Army National Guard and Air Force Reserve; the other components experienced cuts.

Due to differences in mission and force structure, the size of recruit cohorts by component varied greatly.  Therefore, comparisons between the Reserve Component percentages must be interpreted with care.  The Army Components—the ARNG and USAR—had the largest Selected Reserve recruit cohorts, recruiting 70 percent of total Reserve Component accessions (38 and 32 percent for the ARNG and USAR, respectively) in FY 1998.  The Naval Reserve and Air Force Reserve (USAFR) had the highest proportion of prior service recruits (86 percent and 83 percent of their total recruiting efforts, respectively).  The Marine Corps Reserve (USMCR) had the lowest proportion of recruits with past military experience (41 percent).  Prior service accessions provide the Reserve Component with a more experienced personnel base, contributing to increased readiness to meet future missions.

The increase in availability of prior service recruits, a temporary phenomenon due to the larger number of active duty members leaving service during the drawdown, has ended.  The result is fewer prior service individuals from which the Reserve Component can recruit.  The numerical effects of the drawdown coupled with changes in the Reserve mission and increased combat risks may lead to difficulties in Reserve recruiting. "Future Reserve recruits are likely to consider [the] risk, the costs and benefits associated with [serving], and the likelihood that security threats in the future will differ from those in the past."(6)   A decision to join the Selected Reserve today likely involves more tradeoffs than in the past.  Potential recruits are likely to find combat risk, family hardships, and financial losses during a mobilization more important in the Reserve participation decision today and in the future.

Army National Guard Combat Readiness Reform Act of 1992, Section 1111, Public Law 102-484. (go back)
6. Asch, B.J., Reserve Supply in the Post-Desert Storm Recruiting Environment (Santa Monica, CA:  RAND Corporation, 1993), p. 5.
(go back)

Go to Reserve Accessions by Age.

Go to Reserve Enlisted.