Another Set of First Responders

David Broder calls attention to another set of first responders that are not getting the support they deserve: those who serve in our nation's military reserves. He writes about Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who still serves in the Naval Reserve while in Congress:

Kirk put his finger on a challenge that Pentagon officials and many others in Congress recognize. While much has been said -- and rightly so -- about the needs of the "first responders" in homeland defense, the police, firefighters and emergency medical crews, the nation also is lagging in its obligations to the reservists who increasingly are the first responders in any military mission.

When retired Rear Adm. Thomas Hall, the assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, testified before a Senate Armed Services subcommittee last week, he noted that the 1,190,000 reserve and National Guard forces "now comprise almost 50 percent" of the U.S. military. Pentagon figures show that 212,617 National Guard and reserve members had been placed on active duty as of last week. As Hall said, reserve personnel "provide the majority of force protection to military installations worldwide. . . . It is now routine for the Army Guard to plan and execute Bosnia missions. They are scheduled to relieve the active Army in Kosovo," where they already provide most of the logistics support.

More than one-third of all reservists take a pay cut when they are called to active service. Their jobs, while in theory guaranteed, are less secure than they should be. Small businesses have great difficulty filling spaces for employees that will return on some unsure future date.

If our military is going to be so reliant on reservists, policies must be put into place to make that transition easier. As Broder notes:

In a time when few American civilians are being asked for any sacrifice, the burdens of these reservists and their families call upon the conscience of the country.