Is the Army Reserve an Operational Force, a Strategic Reserve, or a Mix of Both?

The United States Army Reserves (USAR) role has changed multiple times throughout its history. It was founded as a medical reserve corps. In that role, it supplied individual replacements to the Army. The USAR continued to be developed into a Cold War force. It would then change again from a Cold War force to a modular force operating in the 21st century. Since the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Army and its Reserve Components (RC) have faced new challenges. The Army has had to rethink and assess what role the USAR will play in the future. Department of Defense (DOD) Directive 1200.17 dated October 29 2008 defines that role. It describes the role of the RCs as providing operational capabilities and strategic depth to meet all requirements across the full spectrum of conflict. This paper will review the roles described in the DOD directive. The thesis will establish how the United States reserve force was created and then the purpose of having a reserve force. It will then establish the strategic reserve role played by the USAR. This will be accomplished by an in depth historical perspective of the USAR. The historical perspective will include the creation of the USAR through the Gulf War.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.