IRR FAQ: How many people are currently being involuntarily recalled by the IRR?

This FAQ is related to Courage to Resist’s “Resisting Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) recall” published February 2009. If this question is of interest to you, please read our overview first.

Officially, the military claims to have subjected 20,000 IRR members to involuntary activation since 2001—about 31% of the entire IRR pool during that time.

Generally speaking, we estimate that the Army is currently in need of a few thousand soldiers from the IRR every three months or so—primarily for the ongoing Afghanistan occupation, but also to maintain current troop levels in Iraq as well. In order to meet that need, the Army will send involuntary activation orders to three times the number of former Soldiers actually slotted to deploy. The Marines will likely need fewer, and call up less frequently.