The Effect of Mobilization on Retention of Enlisted Reservists After Operation Desert Shield/Storm

Book excerpt: This report discusses how reserve mobilizations affect the attitudes, perceptions, & behaviors of reservists, their families, & their employers. Understanding the effects of mobilizations & deployments is important because of the potential effects on retention, future recruiting, & the eventual reshaping of the reserve force in perhaps unforeseen ways. Using the 1991 Guard/Reserve Survey of Officers & Enlisted Personnel, the authors examine whether & how factors affecting reenlistment have changed since 1986--the last large-scale survey of reserve forces; examine the differences in behavior of mobilized & nonmobilized reservists to determine whether mobilization itself has had an effect on retention; & investigate whether mobilizations affected reservists' work, family environments, & economic positions.