Paramilitary: October 24, 2003

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As of October 22, 2003, the United States had 158,894 reservists (including National Guard) on active duty. This is a decrease of 5,120 from the previous week. Those on active duty included 123,912 from the army, 2,430 navy, 20,033 air force, 11,270 marines and 1,249 Coast Guard. The U.S. has about 1.2 million reservists (both in units and as individuals not attached to units.) While a third of all reservists have not been called to active duty, and most of those who have, have only served a few months, some troops have been on active duty for most of the last two years. Military Police units have been particularly hard hit, and it's feared that many of these troops will not reenlist. Opinion surveys of these troops indicate an unwillingness to stay in the reserves, although many long term observers of the reserve units feel that the exodus will not be as large as many fear. Nevertheless, the army is planning to expand active duty military police, and other types of units for jobs that now require a lot of reserve units to be activated. But this will take time, and the overworked reserve units can expect to be on active duty a lot for the next few years.

 

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