Volunteers needed; exercises available

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Chance C. Babin
  • Air Force Reserve Command Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  For some Air Force reservists, the prospect of satisfying their two-week annual tour requirement at their home station isn't very appealing.

They are looking for an opportunity to get some valuable training and a chance to see the world. For them, volunteering for an exercise or other temporary duty assignment might just be the way to go.

Reservists can choose from hundreds of exercises and volunteer opportunities each year. It may take a little planning and research, and a lot of nose-to-the-grindstone work, but spending time training in such places as Italy, Russia, France, Hawaii, South America, Germany or Africa may be well worth the effort.

For an easy new way to find volunteer TDY openings, reservists can now access information about volunteer temporary duty opportunities from their home computer without having to use their Common Access Card.

The Volunteer Reserve System Web site, which lists TDY opportunities and positions, is now available on ReserveNet via the Air Force Portal. Reservists can view the information using their existing Portal user ID and password. The Web address is https://www.my.af.mil/reservenetprod/vrs .

"The integration of the Volunteer Reserve System into the Air Force Portal marks an important milestone in the transformation of the volunteerism tools available to all Air Force Reserve Command war-fighters," said Col. Douglas Whitlow, co-chair of a commandwide volunteerism working group, whose members were handpicked by Lt. Gen. John A. Bradley, AFRC commander. "It is a crucial step in the pathway to providing a suite of services where reservists stand more in control of their own destiny."

Finding information about exercises can be challenging, but there are a tremendous number of opportunities out there. In fact many exercise organizers have trouble filling all of the slots because people are unaware of the opportunities.

"We want to have as many reservists participating as we can," said Steve Stewart, Air Force Reserve Command exercise plans officer. "My marching orders are to have as many AFRC forces involved in exercises worldwide as possible.

"Exercises offer excellent training opportunities as well as world travel," he said. "Participation is up to individual reservists. Exercises don't just drop in your lap. You have to do the leg work. However, units are called upon at times to source exercise participation, thus giving the reservists another way to get involved in exercises."

The first step to getting involved is for reservists to contact their respective functional area at AFRC headquarters and ask for the person who handles exercises. Once in touch with that person, reservists need to provide some basic information, such as how many days they are available, when they are available, where they're interested in going, what kind of training they're looking for, etc.

Headquarters points of contact will provide reservists with several secure Web sites to look up and research information on various exercises worldwide or they may have information directly available.

In order to access the secure Web sites, reservists will need to have access to a military computer connected to the SIPRNet or Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, which is a secure network.

Although not all the exercises are classified, the websites are classified due to operational security purposes.

For those who can access the SIPRNet Mr. Stewart said reservists should pick out several exercises they are interested in while on the SIPRNet, making sure they get the phone number for the action officer from each of the exercises.

"They then need to contact the action officer and identify themselves as a traditional reservist who has two weeks of annual tour and say 'I have a skill or Air Force specialty code that may be useful in your exercise,'" Mr. Stewart said. "The first thing the action officer will want to know is does the caller have permission from his or her commander to participate. Once the reservist is approved, then the ball starts rolling."

Mr. Stewart emphasized that the commander's approval must be in writing.

Not all exercises use reservists, and there may be other limiting factors, so Mr. Stewart said the only way to find out about requirements is by talking to the exercise action officer. In 2006, reservists participated in roughly 90 exercises worldwide.

"Exercises for reservists' participation are never in AFRC's budget. It would be nice if AFRC budgeted for exercises, but it doesn't," Mr. Stewart said. "It's up to a unit whether it wants to send reservists or not. The best bargaining chip to get involved in an exercise is having your full allotment of annual tour left."

Action officers like having reservists participate in annual tour status because it doesn't cost them anything. In today's world, about 95 percent of the exercises that reservists participate in are done in annual tour status, Mr. Stewart said.

The second most popular option for reservists' participating in exercises is to use man-days, which are funded by the reservists' unit.

"Due to new stricter budget constraints, the least used status is Military Personnel Account days, which are paid for by the organization conducting the exercise," Mr. Stewart said. "The exercise sponsors don't have the MPA day pot of money available they've had in past years.

"Exercise sponsors know they aren't going to get the response they once had from reservists because the reservists won't necessarily save their annual tour time until the end of the year," said Mr. Stewart. "Sometimes (the exercise sponsor) will come up with man-days if they need someone bad enough."

Mr. Stewart advises prospective exercise participants to start searching six months in advance to make sure there's enough time to get ready. Also, if reservists have a secondary Air Force specialty code, they need to let the exercise action officers know as this may enhance their opportunities.

"Exercise opportunities are almost endless," Mr. Stewart said. "There are hundreds of exercises out there with at least 100 that reservists have a good chance to get in to. It's just a matter of finding one that's right for you."