Revamping Readiness in the Army Reserve

By CW4 Erica Crawford, Adjutant General

Article published on: January 1st, 2025, in the Volume III, Issue 1, January-March 2025 Edition of Strength in Knowledge: The Warrant Officer Journal

Read Time: < 6 mins

The United States Army Reserve (USAR) supports and supplements the Active Component to help wage and win America’s wars. At the heart of its success lies personnel readiness. Whether meeting physical standards or staying on top of all the administrative tasks, this readiness is crucial for our operational effectiveness. However, it’s no secret that these administrative requirements can become overwhelming. From medical readiness to retention to ensuring all your forms are up to date, it’s easy to let things slide when balancing requirements. But getting it right is not just important; it’s critical.

To keep the USAR strong and ensure top-notch personnel readiness, we need to address the key personnel readiness challenges through fresh and innovative strategies. These will prioritize engaged leadership, simplify processes, and provide better training opportunities. A revitalization will enable the USAR to support better the mission to wage and win the Nation’s wars and retain soldiers in the ever-evolving landscape, underscoring the critical importance of our proposed strategies.

Key Focus Areas for USAR Personnel Readiness

For the USAR to be at its best, there are a few areas we need to keep an eye on. These include medical readiness, evaluations, sponsorship, and ensuring all your paperwork—like the Service Group Life Insurance (SGLI) and Record of Emergency Data (DD93)—is in order. I know this sounds like everything you have heard before. ***Yawn*** How do we make it easier for Soldiers to complete?

To the Basics!

We hear from all echelons that we must get back to the basics. How do we do this from the perspective of personnel readiness? Let’s look at the individual Soldier tasks of SGLI and DD93. Why do we keep harping on the SGLI and DD93? And why is it up to the S1 to ensure they are done? These documents provide critical info about your family in case of an emergency or worse. No one wants to be the person whose spouse finds out they won’t be getting benefits because the Soldier didn’t update their paperwork. The problem? These forms often get overlooked because they’re buried under all the other training and tasks (like that last-minute MRT class). How do we get around this? Have computers available at the next unit mandatory training session. Have your HR professionals present to help and have first-line leaders track compliance: two birds, one stone.

Improving Medical Readiness: Fixing What’s Broken

Currently, the USAR’s medical system is, well… let’s just say it could use a little TLC. The Reserve Health Readiness Program (RHRP) is contracted to Civilian providers. Previously, the USAR used Logistics Health Incorporated (LHI), and it recently switched to QTC (which stands for Quality-Timeliness-Customer Service, but Soldiers do not see it operate under any of those statements). Since they took over, medical readiness standards have taken a nosedive. But here’s the good news: we understand the challenges, and there are ways to fix them!

Ditch QTC: Let’s bring the medical readiness process back in-house. Sure, it would require extra training for USAR medical professionals, but it would give them a real mission to do over BA weekends.

Explore Partnerships with Civilian Medical Systems: Thanks to MHS Genesis, we can see a Soldier’s complete medical history, even if they went to a Civilian provider. Why aren’t we letting Soldiers use their insurance to visit their private doctor or the Veterans Administration Hospital for their physicals? This would give greater access to Soldiers in remote areas and ensure our members receive timely care. Once complete, they could submit the paperwork directly, and we’d have a faster, more reliable system while maintaining readiness, offering a promising future for our medical readiness.

Change the Physical Health Assessment Timeline: Instead of doing this every year, let’s stretch it to every 3-5 years. Soldiers are taking care of critical items with their providers and profiling through their units. Most conditions can be fixed within the 72-hour window required for deployment.

Host Mass Medical Events by State: Let’s get all the physicals done in one place at a time. If the Guard and Reserve coordinate to create medical readiness facilities at the state level, they could service both USAR and National Guard Soldiers with Army or contracted medical professionals. This would save time and reduce the headache of coordinating appointments.

Keeping Soldiers in the Reserve: Let’s Talk Retention

Here’s the million-dollar question: why are so many Soldiers leaving the USAR? The answer isn’t simple but boils down to a few key reasons.

Lack of Leadership Engagement: New Soldiers often feel bored and disconnected. They join to do a job, but then they do nothing unrelated on BA weekend. If we want to keep Soldiers, we need to engage them more to show them how their skills are valued and how they support the total Army warfighting function.

Civilian Life vs. Military Life: As Soldiers advance, their responsibilities grow. They must balance their civilian careers, family lives, and military obligations. Some can’t make it work.

Limited Training Opportunities: Sure, there’s annual training, but how often are Soldiers allowed to go to those cool schools, such as air assault or cold weather training? Rarely. And when those opportunities come around, they tend to go to the same handful of people.

Skills Misalignment: The USAR is geographically spread out, so you might not find an opening at a unit close to you if you have a specialized job, and it could require travel to attend a BA weekend. Some Soldiers must take Friday and Monday off from their Civilian jobs to attend their BA. And with the growing demand for tech skills, the Army Reserve isn’t always able to keep up with the certifications needed.

Improving Retention: Let’s Get Creative

We can fix retention, but it requires thinking outside the box. Here’s how we do it:

Career Development: Soldiers need to feel like their career is progressing. That starts with leadership, which knows its Soldiers. Too often, new Soldiers come to battle assembly weekends and sit around with no one discussing career growth. It’s time to change that. Even if they’re enlisted, why not speak with them about officer or warrant officer opportunities? As one of my mentors, CW5 (Ret) Dan Eckhoff, would say, “We have warrant officers in formation who are wearing the wrong rank. We need to fix that.” The conversations alone could boost morale and keep Soldiers motivated.

Better Integration of Civilian and Military Careers: Balancing civilian jobs with military obligations is challenging. One solution? Flexibility. If a Soldier’s unit is far away, let’s work with them to make up their battle assembly at a closer unit (within reason, of course). They must go there when a critical event occurs at their home unit. It’s about helping them find that sweet spot between career and service.

Better Benefits and Incentives: How do we make membership in the USAR desirable outside of increased college benefits and retention bonuses? Money talks. One way to improve retention is to offer benefits like full-time childcare through Child Care Aware for TPU Soldiers or give them hiring preference for MILTECH positions. Giving Soldiers a leg up in civilian careers can make a huge difference in keeping them around and positively influence our MILTECH force.

Reworking the Sponsorship Program

The Total Army Sponsorship Program (TASP) is supposed to help Soldiers integrate into their new units. But here’s the thing: it’s not very USAR-friendly. Any time a Soldier is reassigned, the system generates a checklist and requires assignment if a Sponsor. Soldiers are often reassigned within their command and don’t need to go through the whole sponsorship process again. And for those who do need it, the program is confusing and not always helpful. So, what’s the solution? We need a separate TASP module that is explicitly aimed at the USAR.

Improving mentorship in the USAR would provide long-term benefits. Right now, we tell Soldiers to find or be mentors, and then we move on as if that explains what needs to be done. We have no training program for Soldiers to understand the difference between coaching and mentorship or how to establish those relationships. If we had a professional training program in the Reserve, we would help Soldiers feel more connected to their units, ultimately leading to higher retention rates and a more engaged Reserve community.

Readiness in the USAR isn’t just about checking the box on a list. It’s about ensuring Soldiers have the tools, support, and opportunities to thrive on and off the battlefield. We will create a stronger and more resilient Reserve force by streamlining processes, addressing medical readiness challenges, investing in retention, and improving sponsorship programs. When the USAR is ready, the entire Army is ready, standing prepared to defend our Nation, achieve victory, and adapt to the challenges of tomorrow.