OT the reserves

[micky]

OT

I read about someone who was going to grad school, a professional school, who dropped out to join the army reserves.

This was about 1959. Wasn't the army reserves a part-time occupation then, one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer?

So isn't dropping out of school to be in the reserves another word for goofing off?

[Frank]

I seem to recall that about 1957 you could join the national guard without the 6 month obligation for full time which was coming. I considered it but needed to work in the summer. Also recall a friend joining reserves getting called to Germany for about a year.

Both guard and reserve had lower obligations than army but you were subject to call any time. You might coast through but then you don't know.

[Ed Pawlowski]

There were some full time reservists. There were different plans with different obligations.

[micky]

I didn't know that. That's good.

[gfretwell]

Prior to the all volunteer service there were active reserves, drilling one night a week or one weekend a month. Then there was the inactive reserve, the last 2 years of your obligation if you were active service. Typically you signed up for 6 years but only 2 or 4 would be "active". You pretty much ignored that inactive part and hoped we did not have a war. In Vietnam, lots of "active reserves" got called up and became "active". Would be "Inactive reserve" guys might not get to be "inactive" because they were extended. I am not sure many separated but still obligated guys got called back. Now with our never ending wars in the middle east and a volunteer service, "reserves" tend to just be active troops far more than they planned on

[rbowman]

There was a local guy, 53 iirc, that was picking up a few extra bucks in the Reserves. Wasn't he surprised when he found himself vacationing in Iraq. He had just made the age cut when he joined and going active certainly wasn't in his plans.