...in the conference room, with the revolver.
I spent Thursday morning at Peterson AFB reliving all the memories of active duty. I received orders from the Air Force to attend an IRR (Individual Ready Reserve) Muster. I'm not an active member of the Reserve, but still on the list of "reinforcements". In the four years since getting out of the Air Force, this was the first thing I've had to do. In case anyone doesn't know what a muster is, you can click on this link for a definition. Basically, it's just a way for the Air Force to keep tabs on its personnel, their information, and their readiness - and a way to make sure everyone is informed on their benefits, HQ contact information, resources, etc.
The process only lasted two hours. It was the easiest $250 I ever made. My strategy was to be the last one in and the first one out. It worked pretty well. Even though I was one of the last people to report in (it was still within the time range required), I still sat with everyone else in the conference room for a good 45 minutes until the PowerPoint briefings started. During the briefings I realized that all 150 - 200 people that had shown up were going to have to stand in the same line afterwards to out-process. So, at the very end of the last briefing, I left my seat early and got a jump start on everyone else. I and two others finished first, so we decided to walk back to where we had parked. Since the muster area had no parking, we all had been bused there from the base theater. We weren't going to wait for the bus to fill up, so we walked a few blocks back to our cars. I'm positive I was the first one to leave the base. Suckers.
For me and many other officers, we were given an unexpected piece of information. We all knew members of the military are required to meet a military service obligation (MSO) of eight years, whether that be on active duty or in the reserve. If you leave active duty before the eight years, you fulfill the remaining time in the IRR. Then, you are let go. Since many of us had passed the eight years we were wondering why we were called in. Apparently, officers are commissioned for life and will only leave the IRR if they resign their commission. Some of the officers thought that's what they did when we separated from active duty, others, like myself, didn't know we were in for life. I thought at some point enough time would pass (like the eight years) until we were pushed out of the system.
That presents a problem for me. Do I resign completely and eliminate any risk of involvement of call-ups in the future? The world is getting crazier by the moment. Is that honorable? I don't think it's that likely I'll ever be called up. If I do resign and WWIII breaks out, I'll probably have to enter as an enlisted member since I resigned my commission. Does anybody really care? The way I see it, I don't feel like the Air Force owes me anything and I don't owe them anything either. I served my time but also reaped the benefits. My time in was good, but I don't like having any strings attached since I've moved on and cut all ties on my end. I'm leaning towards resigning my commission as long as there are no consequences. I think all it takes is a written letter - a small task to avoid a potentially life changing order in the future for both myself and my family.
When it comes to these issues in today's world, I'd prefer it to be on my own terms as much as possible. I don't want to be involuntarily called up for the next Desert Storm (last time it happened, but only for certain career fields). There's a big difference between an operation like that and WWIII - one mainly involves volunteers and the other, an entire nation. I'm still game for the latter but not necessarily the former.