DU Reservists and National Guard!?

[Docreed2003]

Anyone else feeling a little nervous about getting called up with the escalating situation in North Korea?

If I'm called up I'll go, because I know I have a unique skill set and experience. Anyone else in that boat? It just seems like we're inching closer to the inevitable....but maybe I'm being melodramatic

[TomSlick]

1. Retired Reservist here.

If you get orders, you go.

The important thing is the maintenance of your personal honor. You signed up - you took the oath - do your duty.

Thank you for your service. Somebody has to do it - it not you, someone less capable. I take a some comfort from knowing that at least one reservist is watching the situation and doing the necessary mental preparation.

[Docreed2003]

3. Thanks Tom for the encouragement...

I'm not worried about me so much as I am the family. I've deployed when I was on active duty to Afghanistan in '11, but I've never had to deploy from the position of a "civilian sailor". Now, I say all that because I'm a combat surgeon with a unique experience and my rank will require my services if a broad war is initiated. I get that and I will go, without question, I'm just trying to prepare the family.

[TomSlick]

6. Gotcha, brother.

I left my family at home in 2003 - my son's senior year in high school. (It bugged me one whole lot more than it did him.) The good news is that the year of active duty worked wonders for my retirement points.

Make sure your family knows who to call if they need help. Make really sure they will call if they need help.

Now the retired JAG has to say, make sure your pre-mob stuff (will, power of attorney, etc.) is up to speed. If you're mobilized, the family needs a number for whatever the Navy has for a legal assistance office - just in case.

Good luck.

[GP6971]

2. I lived under that scenario

until 2010, but never got called up. My friend was 59 and a half when he was recalled for 555 days. A chopper pilot and he thought he would be flying supply missions....nope he was transporting combat troops into semi-hot landing zones in Iraq.

Now if I was a 18 / 19 year old troop and I saw an old fat like me piloting the ship, I would be tempted to bail.

[Lee-Lee]

4. The next Korean War would be won or list before you could even report

Retired USAR here.

The only scenario where the North wins is if they can steamroll over all the ROK forces and US Forces and UN forces in the south super fast as seize control of the entire peninsula in 7-8 days or less.

If they can do that, they win. Then the only avenue to fight would be a massive US airborne and amphibious assault and after having already suffered casualties in the tens of thousands the US public wouldn't be willing to stomach an invasion that would lose many thousands in the course of hours.

If they can't do that and the US has enough real estate and ports in the South to land reinforcements then they have lost. They don't have the logistics to handle a sustained fight like the last Korean War when the Soviets were providing them massive logistical support and the Chinese gave them massive manpower. As a result if the ROK and UN forces can delay them long enough for reinforcements the KPA will collapse and fall back rather fast once it cannot be supplied.

It will move to an occupation mode before the first Reservists can report for duty at that point.

[Docreed2003]

5. I get the seriousness of a war there

Before the US could put boots on the ground, the north would have launched enough artillery to level half of Seoul. Yes, it will require a massive amphibious assault...guess when the last major amphibious invasion by US forces was?? Oh yeah, Korea!!

Additionally, I'm not the average reservist. I can assure you, because I've already received notification from folks I know on active duty, that I would be called up before any massive invasion. My point was to discuss concerns about that, not to debate the likely outcomes of a war with North Korea.