“We put in a request for folks to help out in our air operations center, and some staff position billets here at Ramstein [Air Base in Germany],” U.S. Air Forces in Europe commander Gen. James Hecker told Air Force Times in an exclusive interview. “We’re going to put in some requests for some Guard units or reserve units to come fill some [air patrol] taskings, so our active duty can get a [much]-needed rest after doing that for a couple years.”

In addition to calling up new fighter units to patrol NATO’s borders and train with foreign allies, Hecker said the Air Force may tap tanker and reconnaissance aircraft as well. He declined to say which airframes or squadrons the service could mobilize in response.

Hecker anticipates the reservists won’t start arriving in Europe until fall at the earliest.
He said it will likely take at least “a couple of weeks” for U.S. European Command to work through the requests for forces from its subordinate units. Then each of the military services decides who it can provide to meet those needs.“Because these are civilians with civilian positions, we want to give them adequate notice to their [employers], so they just don’t pick up and leave the next day,” he said.

The Pentagon has grown its presence in Europe by around 20,000 troops since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, totaling around 100,000 personnel on the continent — its largest footprint there since 2005.

Units across all of the Air Force’s fighter fleets have deployed to protect against Russian incursions into NATO airspace, and the service continues to rotate bomber crews through Europe to deter the use of nuclear weapons. U.S. and NATO intelligence aircraft also routinely patrol the region to track the movement of friendly units and Russian forces.

Facing virtually unprecedented threats abroad, with an all-volunteer military unable to meet recruiting goals, America’s security is imperiled. Given mixed messages from the Pentagon in the face of persistent recruiting shortages, some may not realize the severity of the problem.

The Air Force just announced that it will fail to make its goal for the first time since 1999. We have been told that readiness will not be affected — what, then, is the significance of the targets, one might ask? Some may assume the Department of Defense (DOD) will work its way through this crisis, or that in time the crisis will subside. Yet, the Pentagon has not solved — and evidently cannot solve — this growing crisis on its own. Unaddressed, the problem will worsen.

These shortages and challenges to readiness extend into the Reserve and National Guard. A generation ago, that would be of less concern, but since Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, with no let-up since, these “reserve components” have been used at a rate unprecedented since World War II. Today, the reserve components constitute about 40% of the total military and more than half of the Army’s total strength. Truly, our military cannot operate without the Reserve.

Augmenting an undersized and overcommitted active force, the reserve components contend with increasing “operations tempo.” The men and women who step forward to serve as “twice the citizen,” as Winston Churchill called the Reserves, are finding it increasingly difficult to balance their civilian careers, family responsibilities and military duty.

Employers, who have shown tremendous patriotic support for their employees in uniform, are telling the Reserve Organization of America (ROA) that, although they value military experience and the excellent character found in those hired who have military backgrounds, repeated and often lengthy absences can cause problems.

The difficulties the military faces by missing recruiting goals are not of its making; the reasons by now are fairly well known. ROA does not see these pressures abating anytime soon, so the time for bemoaning is over; it’s time for solutions.