Department of the Army Historical Summary: FY 1978

6

Reserve Forces

Organizing and training citizen soldiers during peacetime for wartime contingencies has been a recurring theme in U.S. military policy since passage of the Militia Act of 1792. In fiscal year 1978 the Army's total force plan relied on the Selected Reserve of the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve for 37 percent of its aviation forces, 49 percent of its special forces groups, 52 percent of its infantry, and armor battalions, 57 percent of its field artillery battalions, 65 percent of its combat engineer battalions, and 67 percent of its tactical support forces.

Developing the readiness of the Selected Reserve for efficient mobilization and early deployment was hampered by the inability of the reserve components to attract sufficient numbers of men and women to join its troop program units, critical strength shortfalls in the Individual Ready Reserve, and a lack of training equipment.

Changes in the structure of the reserve components reflected the requirements of the Total Army Analysis, an annual computer-assisted force-structuring process begun in 1975 that lists the units needed in each of the Army's components to meet the national defense strategy. In the last three fiscal years changes have been extensive: 435 activations and 347 inactivations in the Army Reserve; 113 activations and 91 inactivations in the Army National Guard. The bulk of the force realignments required by the Total Army Analysis have already been accomplished. In the coming year only thirty activations and thirty-nine inactivations are programmed for the Army Reserve, with twenty-three activations and twenty-four inactivations for the Army National Guard. This is well within the goal of limiting the number of changes in the reserve components to no more than 2 percent annually, thus reducing turbulence:

During the past year the Army National Guard began modifying its aviation assets in accordance with the Aviation Requirements for the Combat Structure of the Army plan. The goal is to distribute aircraft among divisions and armored cavalry regiments, with relatively few placed at corps or army level. To minimize turbulence, losses and gains in aviation assets were planned to take advantage of existing facilities and units. In a

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related development, the aviation section of field artillery groups was eliminated.

Late in the fiscal year all field artillery groups in the Army National Guard were redesignated field artillery brigades. To incorporate fire support team doctrine in the troop program, the guard added brigade and maneuver battalion fire support sections to the headquarters of field artillery battalions with a direct support mission and, within the battalion headquarters battery, a fire support team for each infantry and armored company in the organization.

The Army National Guard reviewed modified table of organization and equipment documents to identify personnel and equipment not essential to unit missions and began forming table of distribution units in each state to manage these assets and provide administrative support and control for separate, nonorganic units. Realignment of the guard's last tristate division, the 47th Infantry Division, to a bistate configuration, had not been completed by the close of the fiscal year.

As of 30 September 1978, the Army National Guard contained 3,355 units. The organizations in the structure were:

During fiscal year 1978 the Army Reserve accomplished twenty-three unit activations, twenty-two inactivations, and forty-one conversions. Activation of forty-nine team and detachment size units was postponed until questions were resolved on command and control, mobilization needs, and administrative support.

At the close of the fiscal year the Army Reserve contained approximately 3,200 units of company or detachment size. The major organizations were as follows:

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Despite 104,000 enlistments and 113,000 reenlistments in fiscal year 1977, Army National Guard strength continued declining. Including enlistees without previous military service who were ineligible for pay before starting basic training, assigned strength was 347,340 as of 30 September 1978, or 84.1 percent of authorized strength. Assigned strength a year earlier was 363,777. Paid drill strength was 340,996, compared to 354,706 a year earlier.

Much of the decline was attributed to the departure of draft induced volunteers who had completed their six-year military obligation. However, 50.3 percent of the year's losses involved personnel with incomplete terms of service. Principal causes were incompatible civilian occupations, personnel moves, failure to meet enlistment standards, loss of recruits during initial active duty training, and unsatisfactory participation. A number of steps were taken to reduce such losses. Screening procedures for enlistees were improved, the use of Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Stations was expanded, National Guard guidance counselors were assigned to these stations, and the role of National Guard liaison personnel in training bases was increased to help trainees with problems. Also, detailed comparative data on attrition losses were furnished each state.

Minimum quality enlistment standards, which permit not more than 18 percent in mental category IV and not more than 45 percent of those who have not graduated from high school, were maintained. More significant, the National Guard increased the enlistment percentage of category I personnel and decreased the number in category IV. The ratio of enlistments of nonprior service personnel to prior service personnel continued moving in a favorable direction. By 30 September 1978 the ratio was 45 to 55, well toward the 1981 goal of 50 to 50.

Inactive Army National Guard strength rose to 2,275 by the end of fiscal year 1978, compared to 1,629 a year earlier. Members were attached to units for administrative and accounting purposes and would be available for mobilization.

Recruiting for the Army Reserve also met with success. This was due in large measure to an increase in experienced, full-time recruiters. Enlisted accessions, 52,766 in fiscal year 1977, rose to 52,869 at the close of the current fiscal year. Army Reserve drill pay strength dropped from 189,420 at the end of fiscal year 1977 to 185,753 on 30 September 1978. A high attrition rate hampered the potential for achieving a stable force.

Individual Ready Reserve strength rebounded from an all-

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time low of 143,882 in January 1978 to 168,607 at the close of the fiscal year, a gain of 24,725. The turnabout was made possible by a policy change begun in the spring. The Army stopped automatically transferring Individual Ready Reserve members to the Standby Reserve as they entered the final year of their six-year military obligation. Such transfers were made only upon a reservist's request. The Individual Ready Reserve remained far short of mobilization requirements of 450,000 individuals for fillers and casualty replacements. To improve this situation the Army worked on a test program for direct enlistment of individuals with no prior military service.

The strength of the Standby Reserve fell to 82,677 by 30 September 1978, compared to 152,784 on 31 September 1977. Retired Reserve strength rose from 386,368 to 391,304 during the same period. Major commands began reviewing their mobilization table of distribution authorizations for positions that might be filled by retirees rather than ready reservists. The Reserve Components Personnel Administration Center assisted this effort by providing data on personnel who have retired in the past five years.

As noted in last year's report, the Army developed a set of proposals to help solve Army Reserve and National Guard manpower shortages and to improve training and readiness. Legislative initiatives to increase the attractiveness of service were included, such as education assistance, enlistment and reenlistment bonuses, income tax exemptions, and insurance coverage. The Army transmitted the proposals, which formed the Reserve Revitalization Act of 1977 to the Office, Secretary of Defense, last year. The proposal has not been relayed to Congress, and further action is not expected until Defense studies on training and compensation have been evaluated, and other measures to solve the mobilization manpower issue can be determined.

The reserve compensation system study, which was completed on 30 June 1978, addressed three major areas: reserve pay, differential pay (bonuses and education assistance), and deferred compensation (retirement). The study generally supported a shift in compensation favoring newer and lower-grade members of reserve components. While supporting selective enlistment and reenlistment bonuses, the study advised reducing drill pay and reducing or eliminating retired pay. The Army objected to drill pay reductions and the study recommendations related to retirement, opting instead for a system of compensation compatible with the system used in the active forces.

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Although a comprehensive program offering monetary inducements to promote enlistments and reenlistments in the reserve components has yet to be enacted, in 1977 Congress approved a reenlistment bonus test which the Army Reserve and Army National Guard conducted from 1 January to 30 September 1978. Members who were eligible for the bonus received an initial $900 for a six-year reenlistment and annual payments of $150 for satisfactory service, or $450 for a three-year enlistment and annual payments of $150 for satisfactory service. Of the 1,399 eligible Army Reserve members, 753, or 54 percent, reenlisted, 248 for three years and 505 for six years. In the National Guard test population, reenlistments increased more than 25 percent. In control states offering no bonus, only one percent of reenlistments were for six years, compared to 61.3 percent in test states.

Another recruiting test, the Militia Careers Program, began at the end of the fiscal year. Sponsored by the Reserve Officers Association, the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, the 99th Army Reserve Command, and four vocational-technical schools in southwest Pennsylvania, the program was designed to recruit high school seniors for vacancies in local reserve component units. Unlike others entering the reserve with no prior military service, recruits would be awarded a military occupational specialty based on their vocational skills, be paid from the time of their enlistment, and participate in unit training before initial active duty training. When they graduated from high school, Militia Careers Program enlistees would perform active duty to complete basic training and any individual training required for their military occupational specialty.

During fiscal year 1978 Congress authorized the Army National Guard and Army Reserve to conduct a split-training program permitting enlistees to take basic training one summer and advanced individual training the following summer. It was directed toward students and seasonal workers who lack the time for uninterrupted training.

The U.S. Army Recruiting Command joined the Army Reserve in promoting recruitment in a program that commenced in November 1977 at ten district recruiting commands. It expanded to three additional districts in June of this year. In July the Army approved a plan to expand the program to the remaining forty-four district recruiting commands by May 1979. The Recruiting Command will then have full responsibility for Army Reserve recruitment.

The Army National Guard continued moving toward a

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trained, full-time recruiting force. The National Guard worked closely with the Army Recruiting Command, setting up a mutual referral program, sharing recruiting techniques, and placing guard recruiters at Army recruiting stations where space was available.

The National Guard took a number of actions to increase the number of ROTC graduates entering its ranks as junior officers. It widened its advertising efforts, interviewed ROTC cadets at summer camp, briefed military science professors at conferences, established an ROTC management section in the National Guard Bureau, and approved a company-grade overstrength of twenty-five percent to place the maximum number of ROTC graduates in unit vacancies.

Efforts to raise attendance at state officer candidate schools included equalizing male and female entrance prerequisites so that more females could qualify and using a computer to identify qualified guard members. The guard hoped to increase enrollment from 3,000 in fiscal year 1978 to 4,000 by fiscal year 1980.

Twenty-five National Guard members on full-time duty counseled soldiers leaving the Army on the advantages of joining the guard. Full-time career counselors were assigned to sixteen battalions in four states in a test to improve retention. If the test is successful, the Army will seek funding to fill the 732 authorized full-time career counseling positions.

Minority strength in the Army Reserve did not change significantly during fiscal year 1978. The Army National Guard made gains toward its goal of having all units reflect the social and ethnic character of their community. At the end of the year Army National Guard minority strength was 90,040, 25.9 percent of its assigned strength. This included 2,068 officers, 300 warrant officers, and 87,672 enlisted personnel. The guard was launching a special program to raise the number of minority officers.

The Army National Guard and the Army Reserve pursued programs to increase the number of women in their enlisted and officer ranks. The guard had problems retaining its women members; the reserve had problems getting women to enlist. A review of the situation was sponsored by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Reserve Affairs and completed in March. It identified problems and issues and made recommendations. The review was the first to address Army policies and practices as they apply to women in the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve.

A group formed in May 1977 to study full-time training and

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administration of the Selected Reserve completed its work. The group concluded that the cost difference between a military support force and one manned by technicians was not significant enough to justify a change in the current system, and that the excepted civil service status of the National Guard technician was more advantageous than the competitive civil service status of the Army Reserve technician for Selected Reserve units.

The National Guard Bureau completed a study on technician/military compatibility for all Army National Guard technician positions. In follow-up actions, the National Guard Bureau issued up-to-date compatibility criteria for technician positions, began a project to develop new qualification standards for all National Guard technician positions, and developed standardized guidance for both excepted and competitive merit placement programs.

In fiscal year 1978, Army National Guard technician requirements were 33,882; in 1977 they were 32,369. Authorized technician strength was 28,374, or 84 percent of requirements.

Traditionally the ratio of full-time technician personnel to drill participants has been lower in the Army Reserve than in the Army National Guard. In 1978 it was 1:23 compared to 1:13. The number of Army Reserve technicians at the close of fiscal year 1978 was 8,109; there were 8,622 on 30 September 1977. The number of technicians required to properly support the force this coming year was set at 10,600, 500 more than for 1978. The Army sought to raise the number of technicians authorized for the Army Reserve to 8,860, an increase of 310 over fiscal year 1978.

The difficulty of maintaining reserve component strength in an all-volunteer Army placed an ever greater importance on efficient management of personnel resources. Improving the management of the Selected Reserve and the Individual Ready Reserve has long concerned the Army, but interest in retirees has received almost no attention since the early 1940's, when limited numbers of retirees were screened for service in World War II.

The Reserve Component Personnel Administration Center (RCPAC) held the military service records of approximately 230,000 Regular Army retirees. However, except for enlisted personnel who retired with less than thirty years of active service, the information entered in the RCPAC computer was limited to the retiree's component, social security number, sex, and

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whether the retiree was an officer, warrant officer, or enlisted person. Not until August 1977 did the center begin entering mobilization data from all incoming records.

Since the 1960's RCPAC has been developing a computerized file on retired reservists and Regular Army enlisted personnel with less than thirty years of active service who have been placed in the retired reserve control group. By the fall of 1978 the file contained data on some 392,000 retirees.

RCPAC and the Army Finance Center began matching computer tapes as a first step in placing retirees in three groups: (1) individuals who have retired in the last five years, meet age and grade criteria for mobilization, and did not retire by reason of disability; (2) individuals who have been in a retired status for more than five years, meet age and grade criteria for mobilization, and did not retire by reason of disability; and (3) individuals who have retired for reason of disability or do not meet age or grade criteria. A more laborious task will be examining records, particularly on Regular Army personnel, to fill information gaps on the computer tapes. RCPAC planned to contact retirees twice a year to verify addresses, physical status, and civilian occupations. It also planned to match retirees against modified tables of distribution authorizations for placement upon mobilization.

RCPAC expected to have category 1 personnel under management during the first quarter of fiscal year 1979, thereby creating a resource pool of some 110,000 individuals who have retired since August 1974.

The Army terminated the voluntary mobilization preassignment program on 31 December 1977. By the close of fiscal year 1978, 5,448 volunteer reservists were still preassigned. During the program's twenty-one months, 32,505 individuals, of whom 17,270 were deemed ineligible, volunteered for 16,552 vacancies.

To replace the voluntary program the Army developed a mobilization preassignment plan. Its aim is to ensure the quick supply of personnel needed to bring active and reserve component early deploying units to wartime strength, staff mobilization stations, and meet overseas replacement requirements. Personnel separated from active service with a reserve obligation would receive preassignment orders through an RCPAC-linked computer at the separation station. Current Individual Ready Reserve members would be screened by RCPAC and given their orders. Individual mobilization orders would become effective upon announcement of a full mobilization through the news media. Although earmarked for specific unit assignment, the

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reservist would be preassigned to the garrison of the station at which the early deploying unit or overseas replacement activity he or she is to join is mobilized.

Testing of the mobilization preassignment program was begun at RCPAC and selected Army separation stations, and was expected to be completed early in fiscal year 1979. Preliminary test results indicate that the program could match individuals with identified mobilization requirements upon their release from active duty.

In a closely related action, the mobilization personnel system was designed and developed during fiscal year 1978 to overcome deficiencies in the mobilization of reserve component personnel uncovered in the 1976 mobilization exercise. More comprehensive in scope than the mobilization preassignment plan, which deals primarily with early deploying units, it involves the total management of reserve component personnel resources for mobilization. The U.S. Army Military Personnel Center would be charged with computing personnel requirements that could not be met within the active Army, while RCPAC would compute the filler needs of reserve component units. RCPAC would then select Individual Ready Reserve members to meet active and reserve component requirements and assign them to the appropriate mobilization station. In addition, RCPAC would create a data accession file on all mobilized reserve component personnel (those in units as well as individuals) which would be placed at mobilization stations and updated on a monthly basis. The mobilization personnel system was scheduled for testing early in fiscal year 1979.

The Army Reserve completed the second phase of a program to bring its officers under the officer personnel management system, thus raising the total number of officers under intensive personalized management to 46,000. The remaining 35,000 officers are expected to be brought into the system during fiscal year 1979, a year ahead of the schedule indicated in last year's report. Extension of the system to additional Army National Guard officers was hindered by manpower shortages.

On 10 September 1978 the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower, Reserve Affairs and Logistics) approved an expeditious discharge program for the reserve components which closely parallels the program used in the active Army. It applies to all nonprior service Army National Guard and Army Reserve troop program unit enlisted personnel who have completed at least six but not more than thirty-six months of continuous unit service on their first enlistment. The program provides a quick,

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simple means of discharging substandard, nonproductive members. It will not be used as a substitute for other appropriate administrative action or to separate members with a potential for rehabilitation. No member will be discharged without his consent. Members discharged under the program will be issued either an honorable or general discharge, as warranted. On 25 September appropriate congressional committees were informed of the Army's plan to carry out the program. Barring objection by one or more of the committees, it will become effective on 1 November 1978.

The pilot phase of the enlisted personnel management system, initiated in fiscal year 1978, has brought 5,000 members of the Individual Ready Reserve under personalized management. System requirements for the automated reserve manpower program were approved, and a development contract was awarded. The standard installations division personnel system for both the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard continued.

During, the past year efforts to raise the logistical readiness of reserve component units were hampered because modern tactical equipment from battalion- and company-size units was diverted to Europe as prepositioned wartime stocks. Equipment shortages inhibited training and remained the major factor in the failure of reserve component units to meet the required degree of readiness.

The Army Reserve improved its logistical readiness despite serious shortages in communications-electronics, Army Security Agency, and data processing equipment. Equipment expenditures from procurement appropriations totaled $67,518,313. Of this, $35,431,839, or 52 percent, went to mobility equipment, and $14,478,806, or 21 percent, went to troop support items.

The following table represents Army Reserve equipment assets at the close of fiscal year 1978. Less than one percent of the total dollar value stands for nondeployable assets.

The Army National Guard faced critical equipment shortages, particularly in communications and electronics, such as area communications items, tactical radios, and radar sets. Nevertheless, the Army National Guard improved its logistical

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readiness. By the close of the fiscal year 50 percent of the guard's affiliated and early deploying units met or exceeded established goals.

The overall equipment status of the Army National Guard at the end of fiscal year 1978 is reflected in the following chart.

The Army National Guard improved equipment maintenance. This was due in large part to greater availability of repair parts, expansion of mechanized supply operations at the unit level, better management, improvements in maintenance procedures, increased involvement of unit personnel in maintenance activities, and the emphasis placed on maintenance as a command responsibility with requirements clearly defined at all levels.

The Army took a number of actions during the past year to promote cooperative maintenance activities, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. It was guided by the final report of the Army Logistics Evaluation Agency study-Improved Maintenance Support Among Army, Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve-which was published in May 1977. Some of the measures the report recommended were working out a memorandum of understanding on intraservice support agreements by the National Guard Bureau, TRADOC, and FORSCOM; carrying out agreements for Army National Guard equipment support at Fort Bliss, Texas; maintaining guard communication security and chemical equipment at active Army installations on a job order basis; executing agreements between the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve for the guard to service selected reserve equipment in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and New York; and paving the way for the Army Reserve to take over the support functions of the active Army's maintenance facility at Neville Island, Pennsylvania, which could then be closed. Also, FORSCOM was preparing a detailed plan for improved maintenance support of Army Reserve equipment.

In fiscal year 1978 new obligation authority for the Army Reserve military construction program amounted to $51.2 mil-

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lion, $2.6 million less than last year. Carry-over funds of $16.3 million from previous programs brought the total available for obligation to $67.5 million. Of this amount $36.3 was obligated, leaving $31.1 in carry-over funds for fiscal year 1979.

The Army Reserve construction backlog at the close of fiscal year 1978 was $715 million, compared to $338.4 million seven years earlier. The increase was due to rising costs, maintenance and storage facilities for new equipment, additional training and troop support facilities at weekend and annual training sites, and increased home station construction requirements. Guidance covering programming for the next five years did not allow reduction of the backlog, nor maintenance of facilities at fiscal year 1978 levels, although 60 percent were considered inadequate. The Army had long-range plans for replacing inadequate facilities and expanding others to meet space requirements, but there was growing skepticism that funds would ever become available to make these plans a reality.

The Army National Guard military construction program received $49.4 million in new obligational authority in fiscal year 1978, $11.7 million less than in 1977. Another $6.8 million in carry-over funds brought the amount available to $56.2 million. Obligations for the year totaled $52.0 million, or 93 percent of the amount available. During the year contracts were awarded for 158 projects; 96 were major and 62 were minor. The major projects cost $44 million. Forty-one were for armories.

During the year the backlog of Army National Guard construction projects increased by $86 million to $672 million: $339 million for armory replacement, additions, alterations, or rehabilitation (624 of the guard's 2,799 armories were considered inadequate); $97 million to bring 203 of 1,846 administrative and logistical facilities up to acceptable standards; $160 million for 106 projects at Army National Guard training sites; and $76 million for minor construction and planning.

Hampered by strength and equipment problems which were preventing the reserve components from making significant gains in overall readiness, the Army increased its efforts during the past year to improve training readiness within the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve.

At the forefront of the effort to raise training readiness was the additional full-time training and readiness manning program. On 1 January 1978 a one-year test began of using full-time readiness specialists to improve reserve component capabilities.

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Two-hundred-forty-three noncommissioned officers (146 guardsmen and 97 reservists) in the grade of E-6 or E-7 were assigned to units of battalion or company size. Their job was to manage training and assist in planning.

There was some difficulty in attracting specialists to the program due to its transitory nature. However, the test got off to a good start, and the Army was optimistic that the specialists would improve training, permit unit commanders to devote more attention to other problems, and promote higher retention through better use of troop training time.

The new gaining command program will establish a tentative wartime assignment for early deploying active Army and reserve component units, assignment to a USAREUR corps or communications zone headquarters. Divisions, separate combat brigades, and armored cavalry regiments are excluded from the plan. Scheduled to go into effect in fiscal year 1979, the program will encourage planning between participating units and installations, including the exchange of standing operating procedures and personal communications between commanders and staffs. It will ease the transition from peace to war, and impart a sense of urgency among reserve component participants by stressing their probable wartime roles and providing increased benefits for units that train overseas with the gaining commands. It will not change peacetime chains of command or administration, nor alter existing training and readiness responsibilities.

Reserve component training with overseas commands is a major tool in carrying out the gaining command program. Plans were developed to expand overseas training so that, beginning in fiscal year 1979, reserve component units scheduled for deployment during the first thirty days of war would train in Europe approximately once every three years. During fiscal year 1978 seventy reserve component units (38 ARNG and 32 USAR) trained with overseas commands. The participation of four Army National Guard and two Army Reserve combat units marked the first time that combat-type units were involved. Three guard units also trained overseas as part of an exchange program involving the 47th Infantry Division with units of the Norwegian Home Guard and Pennsylvania and Ohio National Guard units with the British Territorial Army Volunteer Reserves. Another thirteen Army National Guard units from ten states participated in an interstate exchange program to gain training experience in new environments under varying command structures.

Close cooperation among all the Army's components was an

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important feature of the affiliation program, which was begun in 1974 as an offshoot of the roundout program. During fiscal year 1978 the affiliation program linked, eighty Army National Guard and sixteen Army Reserve battalion-size units and one Army Reserve engineer company with active Army units to give the reserve component members year-round training and operational assistance. The expansion of the program to include approximately seventy early deploying company- and detachment size units was deferred to fiscal year 1979 when between seventy and one hundred such units are expected to be added to the program.

Another continuing cooperative venture was the mutual support program. The commanders of active Army and reserve component units, usually in adjacent geographical areas, were encouraged or directed to join forces for training and other projects. This nonfunded program continued to pay tangible dividends in improved readiness, better understanding, and improved utilization of training facilities and resources.

The active component battalion task force support during the annual training program was expanded so that by the close of the fiscal year all major nonaffiliated reserve component divisions were receiving support. Planning was completed for the division partnership program. It will begin early in fiscal year 1979. The initial phase of the program will pair the 40th Infantry Division (Mech), California Army National Guard, with the 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado; and the 49th Armored Division, Texas Army National Guard, with the III Corps, Fort Hood, Texas, and its two armored divisions-the 1st Cavalry Division and 2d Armored Division.

Reserve component specialized training included greater participation in such major joint readiness exercises as BOLD EAGLE in the southeast, BRAVE SHIELD In the southwest, REFORGER In Europe, FOAL EAGLE In Korea, and EMPIRE GLACIER. Two Army National Guard divisions and combat service support elements from both the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve participated in LOGEx-78, a command post exercise coordinated by the joint Chiefs of Staff and conducted at Fort Pickett, Virginia, 13-26 August 1978. For the first time in four years this annual test of the Army's logistical capability was based on a European scenario.

Extensive preparations were made during the year for NIFTY NUGGET/MOBEX 78, which was to be conducted early in fiscal year 1979. It will test the Army's ability to mobilize and deploy the forces required to support NATO during the first

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thirty days of a conventional war. NIFTY NUGGET/MOBEX 78 will also evaluate measures taken to correct mobilization deficiencies noted in MOBEx-76, including problems in requisitioning fillers from the Individual Ready Reserve and calling reserve component units and personnel to active duty.

Since the Standby Reserve is to be included in the exercise, new procedures were tested and evaluated to enable the Selective Service System to determine what portion of the Standby Reserve would be available for use in mobilization. The Director, Selective Service System, and Commander, Reserve Component Personnel and Administration Center, signed a memorandum of understanding in June 1978 for testing the procedures. The center will use the results during MOBEx-78 to evaluate Standby Reserve requirements, assets, and shortages.

A relatively small-scale test of mobilization capabilities within the Army National Guard involved three company-size units. They engaged in an exercise that evaluated their ability to prepare for overseas movement and prepare replacements for overseas movement. The results indicated that direct deployment to Europe was possible for company-size units with a high degree of readiness if special support were provided, that considerable effort on the part of the unit to be deployed would be required, and that some requirements were redundant and outdated.

In other training developments, the Army National Guard increased the use of computer-assisted training aids, such as the combined arms tactical training simulator and the map maneuver system. Gains were made in extending the Skill Qualification Test program to the reserve components. Development moved forward on automation techniques to determine training requirements for newly enlisted reservists. Finally, there was progress in bringing the noncommissioned officer education system to the Army Reserve.

During fiscal year 1978 the Army National Guard fulfilled its role as the organized militia by responding 291 times to emergency conditions in forty-seven states. This involved a total of 31,466 guard personnel and 191,231 man-days.

National Guard personnel were placed on state active duty twenty-two times to help civil authorities control civil disturbances. Incidents in twelve states included twelve strikes and one prison riot and involved 5,970 guard personnel. Guard units conducted up to twenty hours of refresher training in civil disturbance control operations.

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During fiscal year 1978, 25,496 Army National Guard personnel assisted civil authorities during 269 emergencies in forty-seven states. Natural disasters accounted for 116 of the calls. Fifteen were forest fires, forty-five were snow and ice storms, forty-six were floods, and ten were tornados. There were also thirty-nine searches and rescues, twenty-eight water hauls, twenty-seven medical evacuations, thirteen support missions, and four security missions. Traffic control, chemical spills, power failures, train derailments, and providing emergency shelters accounted for the remaining twenty-two emergencies.

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