[geeks] Special skills draft?

[Mike Parson]

On Thu, Sep 23, 2004 at 08:37:46AM -0700, velociraptor wrote:
> On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 09:48:28 -0500 (CDT), Jonathan C. Patschke
> <jp at celestrion.net>wrote:
>> On Thu, 23 Sep 2004, Brian Dunbar wrote:
>>
>>> It's been a while since I looked at my own contract but I recall having
>>> the impression that once you had finished the standard eight years (be
>>> that four years active, four years IRR or whatever) they couldn't reach
>>> out and draft you?
>>
>> You are correct.  They may -request-, but they may not demand.
>
> However, if an individual remains on IRR to improve their 
> retirement pay, they can be reactivated, and it's not a "request".

When I was done with my regular Nat'l Guard duty and requested transfer
to the IRR for the last 2 years, the Colonel I was driving for at the
time tried to talk me into just pulling that last two years on regular
status.  One of the reasons he listed was that if I wanted to go back on
active status, I'd have to pass an enlistment physical, but if I stayed
on active status, I'd just have to maintain my regular physical.  He
also didn't like the driver that was next in line to replace me, and
there were no other qualified drivers in the unit.

> A family friend of a consultant I work with was reactivated at
> 67--he went to a US desk job so someone else could be re-
> leased to the field.

Huh, didn't think they could pull you back in after you hit 65.

> The father of a friend of mine, late 50's was reactivated into the
> Air Force.  He was still currently piloting commercial jets, so
> they brought him back in.  Ostensibly it was to fly transports
> US->Germany, but it turns out he was in Iraq.  He just came
> back last week as he was in a Hummer targetted by insurgents--
> sandwiched between two cars in a t-bone crash.  He got a 
> bashed up face and a broken wrist, and considers himself 
> lucky.  I don't know if he was IRR or not.

Officers have a different status than enlisted.  Once you fulfill your
enlistment requirements, you're pretty much done.  Officers are never
fully out of their commitment, they can be recalled much easier.  Pilots
are all officers.

In the end though, I'd like to belived that if my country came and asked
me to serve, and I was able to, I'd be willing to.  Easy enough to say
it though, I don't have any special military training that they can't
retrain someone else to do easier than it would be to get me back into
good enough shape to serve. =)

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org