U S Army Reserve

To commemorate my 100^th review, I’ve decided to review the United States Army Reserve.
First, it is the 100 year anniversary of the Army Reserve. It has been around since WWI, WWII, the Vietnam war, Korean war, Gulf War (Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield), Bosnia conflict, and Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
In case you didn’t know, the Army Reserve is designed as a combat service support organization. That implies that there are no artillery (King of Battle), infantry (Queen of Battle) or other combat units. Of course, if you do your research, there is one infantry battallion in Hawaii kept in the Army Reserve for historical purposes.
Combat service support is all the other stuff the Army needs to function. Human resources, information technology, legal, medical, etc. It’s all the ‘overhead’, like in other companies.
The United States Army Reserve is currently undergoing a lot of change. If you know about business, it is going from a divisional structure to a matrix structure. Each specialty (military intelligence, medical, legal, military police etc) has its own command as well as an administrative command.
For those that live in the Bay Area, a major Army Reserve command (one of four) is moving from Los Alamitos to Mountain View. What does this mean for you? If you eat on Castro Street, you’ll be seeing a lot of ‘green suiters’ in the next couple years. That’s just one change.
As for my personal experience with the Army Reserve, it has shown me what I do not want to do with my life. Not that I’m knocking the AR, it has made me more responsible, taught me a lot about myself, and gave me a lot of direction and opprotunities i would otherwise not have. It has given me many relationships that I could have never made in the ‘civilian world’.
For example, my letter’s of recommendation for business school were written by a Colonel and one of the VPs of Charles Schwab. Rick Distaso, the lead prosecuter in the Scott Peterson Trial, is in my unit (he counts helmets btw). My new Commander works for the LA City attorney’s office and tells stories about Britney Spears and other celebrity jail experiences. I’ve met about five judges in different counties and many, many special agents. I don’t think I’ll ever get in trouble with the law.
Anyway, however you feel about the war/​conflict that is currently going on, or war in general, please realize that the Army as an institution is necessary for this country to exist. We are simply a machine that someone else runs.