[thechat] Why send reserves?

[Daniel Frey]

>Yup. Overweight and pasty - that'd be my buddy.

>Freaked out? No. Definitely not. Most of the Air National Guardsmen
that
>he works with (and I'd venture to guess also most Natl. Guardsmen and
>Reservists as well, although I don't know for sure) are ex-full-timers,
>and most of them have served in combat situations during wartime of one
>kind or another. They've seen a bit. 

True - I'm in the NY Air National Guard, and I'm an ex-full timer.  I
never saw combat, but I was trained appropriately.  Reservists and
Guardsmen continue to be trained, too.  That's why they have us come in
on the weekends, for continuing training: small arms(shooting the M-16),
NBC warfare(ability to survive and operate in a nuclear, biological and
chemical situation), self-aid buddy care(how to take care of yourself or
your comrades if you get shot/maimed/etc.).  On top of that, we have to
stay qualified in our primary job.

>In fact, many of them in his unit are State Police officers, EMT's,
Fire >Fighters and the like, and so probably see more day-to-day
"action" than >most full-timers do. This may be unique to his post, but
I doubt it.

If your friend is in security, probably.  We tend to do on the outside
what we do on the inside.  I fix computers in the guard and in my job.

>But yes, overweight and pasty.

Unfortunately, we're not all in the best shape.  When I was on active
duty, it was much easier to say within weight standards - but when
you're only training once a month, it's easy to start acting (and
eating) like a civilian even if you're not one.

You'd be surprised how many guardsmen volunteer to go to the middle east
when given the chance - probably nearly every one you see on TV going to
some undisclosed location volunteered.

>BH