A new Pentagon policy for veterans still in the Individual Ready Reserve puts a sharper tone on how the Pentagon views inactive soldiers, moving from a last resort to a backup source for manpower.
“First and foremost, the [Individual Ready Reserve] is a mobilization asset. Deliberative plans will be in place that account for the use of the IRR, especially in plans for full mobilization,” according to a Department of Defense instruction released March 23.
The Individual Ready Reserve, or IRR, is made up of service members who have left active duty or traditional reserve roles with remaining time on their original service contract. IRR members return to civilian life and are considered veterans rather than military members, but are subject to recall to active duty in times of war or national emergency if needed.
The updated IRR rules arrive just months after Congress directed the military to do a 21st-century mass mobilization exercise.
Though the day-to-day policies in the new guidance are largely unchanged from the last decade, including the rules around attending musters, the language reflects a “new philosophy” for the Inactive Ready Reserve, said Steve Minyard, director at Reserve Organization of America.
“The IRR used to be a place where you would just go and sit and the military didn’t really care what you did, and they didn’t care your skill set, because you just sat there to fulfill your full contract,” said Minyard, a former senior enlisted advisor for the Pentagon office that oversees IRR policy and guidance. “You may have done four years on active duty, and then you owe four years into the IRR, you don’t want to actively drill, so you just sit there.”
But laying out a vision for the Inactive Ready Reserve as a “mobilization asset” suggests a new role.
“That is new,” Minyard said. “That was not in the other one. So this isn’t just a place for people to ride out their contract.”
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