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                         April 12, 2002

The attitudes of 1812 must change

Commentary by Don Dees

WASHINGTON (Army News Service) -- "Weekend Warriors!" "Nasty Guard!" Darn Reservists!" It’s all been said.

Guard and Reserve troops have traditionally been viewed as inferior to regular Army soldiers.

When British Maj. Gen. Phineas Riall faced troops from the 6th Infantry Regiment during the War of 1812, he thought he would be facing militia members from Buffalo, N.Y. Instead he encountered soldiers who marched bravely through his artillery fires. Seeing their professionalism, Riall exclaimed, "Those are Regulars, by God!"

Riall expected to encounter what today we would call reservists, and instead, he had to fight against soldiers from America’s standing army.

Riall’s prejudice nearly mirrors attitudes that still exist in some places regarding the Guard and Reserve. Some active-duty soldiers believe reservists just don’t maintain the same standards.

Army Regulation 670-1 governs the wear and appearance of the Army uniform. The regulation does not say active-duty forces must wear it one way and reservists another. There is no provision for alternate uniforms for each component.

When it comes to drill and ceremony, Field Manual 22-5 does not differentiate between components regarding how to march.

The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command regulates training for all soldiers, regardless of component. Basic trainees undergo the same rigorous indoctrination into Army life, regardless of component. New recruits also must undertake training for their specific job in the Army. TRADOC regulates this advanced individual training for all components.

Reserve-component units must validate their capabilities upon mobilization, just as active units do through exercise evaluations and rotations through Army maneuver training centers.

Senior Army leadership promotes the notion of, "one team, one fight." Comparable training requirements ensure this can be a reality.

Winston Churchill had it right when he said, "The reservist is twice the citizen." Guardsmen and reservists live and work in their communities and serve their nation when duty calls.

Some active-component soldiers assume that with only two training days a month available, reservists cannot achieve the same level of proficiency.

This assumption ignores the fact that many reservists hold the same or similar vocation in private life.

Today, half the U.S. Army’s combat power exists in the National Guard. National Guard units have been a part of the peacekeeping efforts in the Balkans since shortly after the 1995 Dayton Peace Accord was signed. In the last rotation, force protection at one cluster of base camps south of Tuzla, Bosnia, was the responsibility of a Georgia National Guard unit.

During Desert Storm, 13 reservists were killed and 43 were wounded Feb. 25, 1991, when a SCUD missile hit the building where the 14th Quartermaster Detachment was staying. That Reserve unit sustained the most casualties of any allied unit during the Gulf War.

Leaders at every level today must promote tolerance and acceptance of their reservist counterparts.

When soldiers face an enemy today, they will not be able to make the distinction that Riall did in the War of 1812. Reserve and Guard soldiers serve and die alongside "regulars."

Editor’s note: Sgt. Don Dees is a broadcast journalist with the 356th Broadcast Public Affairs Detachment, an Army Reserve unit at Fort Meade, Md.