March 7, 2007: American reservists have been
alerted that they may get mobilized for more combat duty than they expected.
The Department of Defense has been trying to minimize the amount of time
reservists are on active duty, if only to keep experienced reservists from
getting out when their current enlistments are up. Reservists who have been on
active duty for 24 months in the past five years, are now facing another
mobilization. The army, in particular, wanted to give the reservists four or
more years between overseas mobilizations. Other solutions are being sought.Noting the success of the regular army in keeping
troops content, and in uniform, with combat related bonuses, there is now a
proposal to allow reservists to collect their pensions before age sixty, depending
on how long they had been mobilized for active duty. Currently, reservists,
like a active duty troops, are eligible for a pension after twenty years of
service. But reservists can begin collecting that pension until they are sixty
years old. Under the new rule, the age at which they could collect would be
reduced by the amount of time they spent on active duty. Only active duty of 90
consecutive days would count. Thus if a reservists had been on active duty for
three years, they could begin collecting their pension at age 57.
