Individual Ready Reserve Soldiers benefit from muster

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Osvaldo Sanchez | An Individual Ready Reserve soldier conducts a hearing test from a mobile audiogram unit March 31 during a muster at Fort Snelling, Minn. The Army Human Resources Command sent orders to Individual Ready Reserve soldiers to participate in the muster to assess, update, and certify their readiness.  

FORT SNELLING, MN, UNITED STATES

03.31.2012

Story by Sgt. 1st Class Osvaldo Sanchez 

88th Readiness Division

FORT SNELLING, Minn. – The Soldier Readiness Processing Detachment of the 88th Regional Support Command, or RSC, administered 272 Individual Ready Reserve, or IRR, soldiers, March 31, during its one-day muster at Fort Snelling, Minn. About two weeks earlier in Chicago, the team processed 328 IRR soldiers in the course of two days. The purpose of the Army Reserve’s muster is to assess, update, and certify the personnel readiness of IRR soldiers.

Master Sgt. Gina Taylor, a native of Nisswa and the muster’s non-commissioned officer-in-charge, said it is important for these soldiers to participate in these musters.

“All of these soldiers still have contract with the Army,” said Taylor. “And it’s important because they can see what benefits are still available to them as IRR soldiers. People who are in the IRR can actually volunteer for (mobilizations) like I’m on.” A mobilization is a tour where an Army Reserve soldier is placed on active duty status to perform a duty. She said if they don’t have a job that mobilization is an option.

Ashley E. Ackley, a native of Pine City, said her old unit doesn’t manage her paperwork anymore and that she is completely out of their hands since she transferred into the IRR status.

“I really have no point of contact,” she said. “So it’s a chance to get here and have them physically update all of the papers.” She also said there were various agencies on site that informed her of resources and services available to IRR soldiers and that the Army Reserve 86th Training Division based out of Fort McCoy, Wis., offered her a tour of duty.

In addition, the Employment Partnership Office offered more than 850,000 jobs with nearly 2,000 employers, and Army Reserve and National Guard recruiters provided employment opportunities for IRR soldiers interested in joining a unit.

Capt. Adam R. Eskierka, a native of Stillwater and the readiness muster team officer-in-charge of the Army Human Resources Command, or HRC, said the IRR musters are his command’s mission but that it can’t execute and facilitate these musters without the support of regional support commands and their soldier readiness processing detachments.

“If we did not have these teams’ support there’s no way we could conduct the readiness muster in its current form,” he said. “So the additional 20 to 25 soldiers that each RSC can provide to HRC allow us to accomplish this mission.”

These Individual Ready Reserve soldiers, who are a fundamental part of the Army Reserve, are a customer base of the 88th Regional Support Command, which is an organization dedicated in providing the best support possible.

• Date Taken: 03.31.2012
• Date Posted: 04.04.2012 14:24
• Story ID: 86237
• Location: FORT SNELLING, MN, US