One of the leaders of the United States House thinks it’s time to review how this country uses its military reserves. Congressman Roy Blunt’s son, Missouri Secretary of State Matt Blunt, is one of the reservists called up after the September terrorist attacks and gone for a year. The Congressman Blunt says it’s time to study whether reserves are being used appropriately, or overused. He says one concern is whether reserves are used more, or used longer than absolutely necessary. Blunt says overuse of reserves could discourage people from joining, weakening the integrated military force concept. Blunt says the military plans its operations, and its defense structure, with a reliance on a strong, available, reserve force to backstop active duty forces. It’s called an integrated force. But he says it’ll be more difficult to get people to put their lives on-call if the callups are too frequent and too long. Blunt says the Armed Services Committee and the Defense Department are starting to ask questions about the impacts of long callups on reservists.
