• Virtual Organizations. The RCE-05 team’s third major recommendation was to create Joint Reserve Component Virtual Information Operations Organizations (JRVIOs) to support detecting and combating cyber-attacks. The proposal envisioned Reservists working part-time from remote locations as part of geographically distributed organizations providing a range of services from monitoring systems to augmentation for major incidents. The virtual organizations would capitalize on the existing skills of Reservists gained through civilian employment or military experience. The proposal resulted in a follow-on study that sketched out an operational concept and resource requirements.26 On December 6, 2000, the department authorized the formation of five JRVIOs staffed by 182 Reservists. Today, these organizations provide support to five agencies, but are not primarily employed as homeland security assets.27 They are used extensively to support offensive information operations and intelligence gathering, as well as protecting the Department of Defense information systems.
  • Joint Staffs. The fourth RCE-05 recommendation was to have Reserve Component personnel assigned to a joint task force headquarters for homeland defense. At the time of the report’s release all federally directed military support to civilian authorities was managed by the Army’s Director of Military Support (DOMS) who served as the executive agent for the Department of Defense. In October 1999, as a result of changes in the Unified Command Plan, Joint Forces Command established Joint Task Force Civil Support (JTF-Civil Support) to provide command and control over Department of Defense forces responding to a WMD incident. In addition to writing doctrine and plans, the task force (about 100 personnel) was to be a deployable headquarters element that could go to the site of an attack to coordinate military operations supporting consequence management activities. Following the RCE-05 recommendation, Reserve Component personnel comprise a third of the task force’s complement. The upcoming Defense Department report on homeland security is expected to announce the establishment for a new undersecretary for homeland security who will probably assume the mission of DOMS and control of the DOMS staff (half of which are now National Guard positions). Meanwhile, JTF-Civil Support will transfer to Northern Command (NORTHCOM) when its headquarters is formally established on October 1, 2002. Concurrently, plans are underway to organize Joint State Task Force Headquarters under the State Adjutants General for consequence management and other civil support missions. These headquarters will act as interagency planners and coordinators at the state level.28 The Reserve Component contribution to NORTHCOM and its relationship with these organizations and the National Guard Bureau has not been finalized.

Enter 9/11
 Four days after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the president authorized mobilizing Reservists for homeland security and civil support tasks. Troops performed a variety of missions. For example, over 6,000 National Guard troops assisted in screening at 400 airports, 1,600 soldiers augmented border security, thousands of Air National Guard and Reservists supported air patrols over major population centers, and other troops guarded critical facilities such as nuclear power plants, bridges, and tunnels.

JTF-Civil Support deployed a liaison team to New York City approximately three days after the 9/11 attacks. The city requested few Defense Department resources and the task force soon withdrew, handing coordination for the civil support mission over to a Department of Defense regional Defense Coordinating Officer. New York’s WMD-Civil Support Team also deployed to the city, but did not play a significant role.29

Currently, about 80,000 Reserve Component troops are mobilized (less than 7 percent of the total Reserve force). Less than half of the forces called up are employed in homeland security and civil support tasks. Other Reserve forces supported counterterrorism operations overseas and other operations worldwide.30

In some cases, homeland security operations have placed great demands on the Reserve Component. For example, 80 percent of the air crews conducting air patrols over the United States were from the Air National Guard. Additionally, the mobilization affected the readiness of some commands for other assigned missions, since in many cases individuals were taken from their regular units and diverted to homeland security details. It also created hardships for individuals called away from their civilian jobs for a prolonged period. Normally, mobilizations for domestic operations are relatively brief. Many of the troops called-up for the 9/11 response were activated for the maximum period allowed under the mobilization order, 180 days.

The legacy of the September 11 attacks for the Reserve Component is far from clear. For example, months after the event the Army’s Reserve Component Coordination Council concluded that future missions, capabilities, and requirements still remained undefined. They were also unsure where the money would come from to pay for new homeland security missions. “Funding streams,” the council concluded, “will be difficult to capture.”31