Family concern about long tours of duty in Iraq is driving Britain's weekend soldiers out of the drill halls
The Guardian
September 30, 2003
By Jamie WilsonBritain's overstretched armed forces are facing a personnel crisis because the Territorial Army has been losing volunteer reservists since the beginning of the war with Iraq, the Guardian can reveal.
Almost 2,000 have left since March, raising concern in the Ministry of Defence, which has been relying on the TA to fill shortages in the army's medical, technical and intelligence units.
The revelation is likely to add to the fear that the protracted nature of the war in Iraq, which is leading to reservists being called up for long tours of duty, is exacerbating the crisis.
As senior officers and industrialists meet with at the Royal United Services Institute in Whitehall today to discuss the role of the reserve forces, a number of employers are understood to be frustrated that they are not being compensated adequately for the the army taking some of their best people to plug gaps in the regular forces.
Almost a quarter of the 11,000-strong Operation Telic in Iraq are reservists. Letters have been sent out to 1,500 more this week warning that they may be sent to the Gulf.
According to figures in a Commons written answer by the MoD, the total strength of the TA, the biggest reserve force, dropped from 39,210 in March to 37,360 in August, more than 4,000 below the government's target.
The reduction comes when the armed services are more stretched than at any time since the cold war ended, with troops currently deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, Sierra Leone and Northern Ireland.
With the regular army about 10,000 short, reservists are being used to fill in the gaps. Many reservists have found themselves still in the Gulf long after their regular army colleagues have been sent home.
An MoD spokeswoman denied that the TA was in crisis, and said that some of the shortage could be a result of the officer cadet corps not being around.
But defence chiefs admit privately that they are worried. Claire Curtis-Thomas, Labour MP for Crosby, on Merseyside, has a large TA base in her constituency. She said that MoD officials had told that they were aware they had serious problems retaining reservists.
Reservists in all three services fall into two groups: part-time volunteers who serve in the TA and navy and air force equivalents, and those who once served in one of the three forces remain on the reserve list for 18 years after leaving the services. It is the reduction in the number of voluntary reservists, who can resign after giving three months notice, that is causing most concern.
According to reservists the Guardian has spoken to, family and career pressures are among the main reasons for leaving the TA.
While the reservists themselves knew they could be mobilised before the Iraq war, many of their families did not understand the full implications and since their return had urged them to leave at the earliest opportunity.
One reservist who served in the Gulf said that several colleagues had told him they intended to resign. "They said that their wives or partners were fine when it just meant a couple of weeks and the odd weekend a year, but they were not not prepared for them to be away for six months," he said.
The pressure from families has been heightened by the death of five reservists in Iraq in recent months, including three military policeman who were shot dead by guerrillas in the centre of Basra.
Pressure is also is also beginning to come from employers. Anthony Caffyns, a consultant to his family's motor distribution firm, said that the current government compensation did not cover the real cost to business of losing a skilled member of the workforce. He said that if the current rate of call-up continued, employers would begin to question having reservists on the payroll.
"I am a great supporter of the Territorial Army, but my concern is that if they are overused both the reservists and employers are going to say enough is enough," he said.
Tim Corry, chief executive of Sabre, an MoD-run organisation which acts as a link to industry, said that they had heard of very few problems, most employers being very supportive of their reservists. But he admitted that if the current rate of call-up continued, employers and employees might become more hostile.
"What we are hearing at the moment is people saying we don't mind doing this but there is a cost to our business. It is quite muted at the moment but it might get louder, and it is something that we are going to have to address."
Bernard Jenkin, the shadow defence secretary, said: "Five years ago Labour cut the TA target strength by 18,000, a move they have since admitted was a mistake. But numbers are now 4,000 below the reduced target strength. This goes to the heart of the government's policy. The armed forces are trying to do too much with too little."
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