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.
If an individual fails to report for activation, and the IRR is certain that the individual is knowingly ignoring the recall, the IRR occasionally issues a new set of orders for the individual to report for court martial for refusing their initial orders. This is currently uncommon, but it happens sometimes.
So, if an individual refuses recall, but later voluntarily reports for their court martial, then it is possible that they can be court martialed and sentenced to the stockade for refusing recall. It has not happened yet, but it is possible.
On the other hand, if the individual also refuses and/or ignores this second set of orders, then they will eventually be discharged from the IRR. Since the military went out of their way to send them court martial orders, it is very likely they will receive an Other Than Honorable (OTH) discharge from the IRR.
Needless to say, very few individuals volunteer to be court martialed.
One individual who did volunteer for this trial was Army Spc Matthis Chiroux. Matthis reported, and nearly had to demand this trial in order to use it as a political platform to speak out against the war in Iraq. At the end of the hearing, the Army choose to simply discharge Matthis with a “General” IRR discharge.
“Thank you to Courage to Resist for working long-term on supporting some of the bravest and most effective resistance to war we have seen.”
