Citizen Warriors : America's National Guard and Reserve Forces & the Politics of National Security

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful analysis.
Review: Duncan, an Annapolis graduate and Vietnam veteran,was the Assistant Secretary of Defense for ReserveAffairs during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, and so uniquely positioned to observe the deployment and performance of the National Guard and Reserve units so vital to our efforts in the Gulf.
He examines the Reserves as essential to the All-Volunteer Total Force, and in the context of politics, outside of which the policies cannot be understood. Of particular note is his discussion of the unfortunate roundout brigades, which were activated but not deployed for the Gulf War, and the implications for future operations.
Finally, the author provides some observations, cautions, and recommendations, and concludes "Only if we are wise in our reliance upon our citizen warriors,can we be assured that in the future, as in the past, they will immediately respond to the war tocsin when new dangers arrive".
(Yhe numerical rating above is a default setting within Amazon's format. This reviewer does not employ numerical ratings.)

Rating:
Summary: National Security and the Reserves
Review: This book is divided into two parts. The first part is about Desert Shield and Desert Storm and the decision to call up the Guard and Reserves for that conflict. The second part of this book deals with the "Total Force" policy and how the Guard and Reserves are being used today.

In part one of the book the author decribes the internal politics of the DoD around the idea of involinarly calling up the Guard and Reserves. Duncan explains the view of those that didn't want to involinarly call up the Reserves and those that did. One of the obsticals was that the Reserves hadn't been called up involinarly since 1968.

Part two the book disscuses the "Total Force" policy and how it intagrates the Guard and Reserves. The Guard and Reserves are absolutly nessary for any large or long term military operations these days. The author also disscuses the over use of the Guard and Reserves and the problems that can come from that.

The main problem I had with this book is lack of spicific numbers in some instinces. It seemed that more research should have been done before the final manuscript was put into print.