Reply #47: No, that's not why the Total Force Policy was put in effect

[brentspeak]

The Abrams Doctrine was started not because the military brass didn't want to have a large standing army, but because 1) they didn't want a repeat of over-utilization of Active forces, like there was in Viet Nam; 2) they felt that relative inactivity on the part of the Reserve components (i.e. Army Reserve + Army National Guard) would reduce the Reserves' normal readiness and ability; and 3) they wanted to create a situation where citizens felt they were more directly involved in the war effort. This last goal refers to the historic understanding on the part of the nation that the National Guard's primary mission has always been to "guard the home front". Abrams and the others who crafted the Total Force Policy went out of their way to stress the importance of Goal #3; they acknowledged that the National Guard units are not to be looked at as simply another branch of the military, but one that also takes its orders from civilian leaders.

So yeah, the woman knew there was a possibility that she could be deployed to other parts of the world, but no one, least of all Abrams (if he was still alive) could have known that the Total Force Policy would be misused in such a way that even the National Guard would be over-utilized. (Remember part of the reason the Abrams Doctrine was created was to prevent the Active forces from becoming over-utilized).