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Army screens 118,000 inactive reservists for possible call-up

By Jane McHugh
Times staff writer


The Army has begun screening members of the Individual Ready Reserve to determine who would be available to be called to active duty if needed, a spokesman said Wednesday.
The soldiers are not formally attached to any specific reserve unit but would be assigned to an active or reserve unit if needed.

None of the 118,000 IRR soldiers has been called up involuntarily so far, said Lt. Col. Burt Masters, a spokesman for the Army’s Human Resources Command in St. Louis. Some IRR members could be called up once the screening is finished, he said.

IRR soldiers typically have left active duty or active reserve service, but still have time left on their obligation to serve. They agree to keep themselves ready to be called up in an emergency but are not required to do the periodic training that other reservists must perform.

While the Army does such screening periodically, the current Army-wide screening is a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Masters said.

“It’s a big pool of manpower to get up to date with,” he said.

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?...925-2913503.php

"When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier."

Kipling-