This headline is grossly inaccurate. The White House has not ordered anybody to active duty. "I hereby authorize the Secretary of Defense . . . to order to [them to] active duty." The only thing that has happened is that SECDEF may authorize it. I am not aware of any services asking to do so at this time. This order does nothing more than to put the authority in place, should it be needed.
Additionally, while not inaccurate, "certain IRR" is putting it lightly. This only applies to IRR members who are both:
(1) "in the Individual Ready Reserve mobilization category," which is 100% voluntary under 10 U.S.C. § 10144(b)(1)(A); AND
(2) "designated as essential."
Lastly, even that number is capped: "not more than 450 may be members of the Individual Ready Reserve."
I hear you, but I merely copy/pasted the title from the White House press release and slightly truncated it to fit the character limit. I get your point that this isn't like, say, stop loss during OIF. But it's still noteworthy, and it's going to be interesting to think about which MOS's are short such that this policy needs to be explored in the first place. That's honestly why I submitted the link in the first place, because there's a well known/reported recruiting problem in the armed forces right now.
And if I recall correctly you still have to be in the IRR if it was part of your MSO, but you can "opt in" as well. Might be wrong, it's been a while.
Are you suggesting the White House’s own headline “Ordering the Selected Reserve and Certain Members of the Individual Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces to Active Duty” is grossly inaccurate too?
Isn’t the SECDEF under direct orders from the president who signed this order?
The official press release and HN’s titles say “Ordering”, not “Authorizing” nor “Issuing Policy”.
I don’t know why you’re reading between the lines of one sentence saying that he is only “authorizing the SECDEF” and ignoring the president himself saying this one sentence prior:
> I hereby determine that it is necessary to augment the active Armed Forces […]
The SECDEF is under orders of the president who commands the military and says it is necessary.
It is not accurate. As a purely factual matter, the White House has done no such thing. And the language you're relying on so heavily is just statutory boilerplate. The "determination" isn't some conspiracy theory veiled directive to SECDEF, it's a checklist item for delegating the authority in the first place. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/12304
ok that makes sense, thanks for the link. the “deem it nessecary” phrase is indeed directly lifted boilerplate from that piece of law to make the authorization but it’s not an order in itself.
For SelRes, probably. For IRR MC, almost certainly not.
This 2021 report from the Congressional Research Service indicates that the military "has not made it a priority to fill this mobilization category and currently there are no members assigned to it. Thus, the [12304] authority is effectively limited to members of the Selected Reserve at present."
Additionally, while not inaccurate, "certain IRR" is putting it lightly. This only applies to IRR members who are both:
(1) "in the Individual Ready Reserve mobilization category," which is 100% voluntary under 10 U.S.C. § 10144(b)(1)(A); AND
(2) "designated as essential."
Lastly, even that number is capped: "not more than 450 may be members of the Individual Ready Reserve."