Army Guard, reserves confront long-term personnel problems.

Despite a strengthened recruitment effort, Army Guard and Reserve officials said many of their personnel shortages are unlikely to be resolved in the foreseeable future.

Of particular concern is the development of new leaders. Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly, Army Reserve chief, recently estimated shortages of 5,000 captains and 7,000 other officers.

"It takes four years to produce a commissioned officer, a leader in the Army, of strength and competence and character," Helmly told a congressional hearing. "It will take us in the Army Reserve four to six years at least, at a minimum to reverse this past inattention."

To boost junior officer and noncommissioned officer retention, the Army is working on a plan to give all soldiers--active duty, reservists and guardsmen--more predictability in their deployment schedules. Under a plan submitted to Congress in February, active-duty soldiers could expect to spend two years at their home base after a yearlong deployment. Reservists could have five years and guardsmen four to five years between mobilizations. This plan probably would go into effect in 2007 or later.

Currently, the Army Guard and Reserves are facing "a very challenging year," said Thomas F. Hall, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs. "On retention, we are doing very well. But we're not recruiting as many as expected," he told reporters.

A major factor in this year's shortage is that active-duty personnel in all of the services--who provide many of the recruits for both the Guard and Reserves--are staying in the service in larger numbers than in the past, said the Army Guard chief, Lt. Gen. Roger C. Schultz. For the active-dug, components, he said, "that's a good thing. But what that means for the Guard and Reserve is that prior service members are not available to join our units.

"And for us, that's 5,000, 6,000, maybe 7,000 members a year at a minimum," Schultz said. "We've had years as high as 10,000 soldiers come directly off active duty into our units, and today that's not happening."

Additionally, it is becoming more difficult to attract recruits without previous military experience when they face not just one weekend a month and two weeks of active duty at a nearby facility, but a full year's deployment to combat in Iraq or Afghanistan, Hall said.

About 40 percent of U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan are guardsmen or reservists. Not only are they worried about the risks of combat but many also encounter economic hardship, Hall said. About one third of guardsmen lose money while deployed, because they earned more money per month in their civilian jobs, compared to their active-duty military pay.

Some employers supplement their workers' military pay while they are on active duty to help relieve the financial stress, Hall pointed out. He supports those supplements, but not for all deployed reservists and guardsmen.

Paying supplements to the two thirds of deployed reservists and guardsmen who are not suffering economically could create some unnecessary tension in the ranks, Hall said. "The guy in the same foxhole as you might earn more money than you do," he said. "I don't think that the U.S. taxpayer should contribute to that kind of discrepancy."

The Army increased enlistment bonuses from $8,000 to $10,000 for enlisted personnel, and in some cases, to $15,000 for people with prior enlisted service who possess skills that are in higher demand.

Becoming an officer in the Army Guard and Reserves can earn a recruit as much as $30,000 in bonuses. Heath care professionals may be eligible for up to $50,000 in loan repayments.

Officers and warrant officers who leave active duty and join the Army Guard or Reserves can receive a new affiliation bonus of $6,000.

To beat the bushes for new members, the Guard and Reserves have added 2,200 recruiters. Many of them are veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, who are being asked to spend up to 14 days of temporary duty at a recruiting station near their hometowns.

Members of the Army Guard and Reserves can receive bonuses of up to $15,000 tax-free if they reenlist for six years while serving in Iraq, Kuwait or Afghanistan in the year before they are to leave the service. The size of the bonus is based upon a soldier's pay grade and time in service. First-termers who have served between 17 months and six years will be given a bonus worth 1.5 times their monthly base pay multiplied by the number of years they reenlist.

Soldiers who have served between six and 10 years will receive a sum equal to their base pay multiplied by the number of years of their reenlistment.

Members of the U.S. Special Operations Command--which includes reservists from the Army, Navy and Air Force--are eligible for a new retention incentive package. It provides special-duty assignment pay of $375 a month for enlisted personnel. A retention bonus offered to senior enlisted service members and warrant officers ranges from $8,000 for a one-year commitment to $150,000 for a six-year commitment.

Incentive pay of $750 a month is available for enlisted members and warrant officers with more than 25 years of service who agree to remain on active duty for at least 12 more months.

Other efforts include attempts to help them resolve family problems associated with overseas deployments. One of these is finding affordable childcare while one of the parents is overseas.

The Defense Department has contracted with the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies to help the families of deployed soldiers who do not live near military installations.

This program--dubbed Operation Military Child Care--calls for the NACCRRA to assist those guardsmen and reservists in finding space in child-care facilities at reduced cost.