Wednesday, October 15, 2008

IRR Statistics...sorta

The other day I received an article on the Army's utilization of the IRR, generously forwarded by Vice Presidential Candidate Sultan Jeff.

The article is interesting, and it marks the first time--literally--that I have ever seen an Army official discuss statistics regarding how many people have been drafted out of the IRR.

The problem, then? COL Good claims that only 4% of IRR call-ups have failed to report. This number is so wildly different than all the anecdotal evidence would suggest--everyone seems to agree that there is about a 50% report rate--that it calls into question the rest of the information presented in the article.

Furthermore, if the Army were serious about "debunking myths about the IRR", they should release far more descriptive statistics than the ones listed in this article. Namely, break things down by officer and enlisted, by different military occupational specialties (infantry, artillery, etc). Break the numbers down by year, and let us know the stats on delay and exemption requests.

Until the Army does that, the IRR process will continue to be looked at with fear and loathing by the men and women who make up its ranks.

5 comments:

Jon without an H said...

I completely agree. I scratched my head when I saw the 4% failure to report statistic. At Camp McCrady only about 75% of scheduled soldiers reported and we were told by the Cadre that we were one of the largest amount to show. I would say at least 10-20 soldiers are not reporting every Sunday. Take that over the course of 2-3 years and it's a lot higher than 4%. Agreed, weak report, with superficial,unreliable statistics.

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Jason said...

Ahh, blatant Army lies and contradictions. I talked to a COL from the Army G-1 who was travelling with Gen. Petreaus when he came to visit our Iraqi base in May 2007, and he confirmed that the no-show rate was immense (he wouldnt commit but seemed to think it was around 50%). He also stated there were SO many no-shows that most of them were going unpunished, except for the few that could have their GI bills revoked.

Zeb said...

I would agree that the statistics are slanted. I only had about 60% show up a year ago....and of that only about 40% actually left Ft. Jackson. Army just doesn't want to release the real Numbers...I think they'd be embarrassed and IRR soldiers would realize they have no way to enforce it. LT. Z

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