Publisher's Synopsis
The reserve component has undergone an evolution in recent years in that it has become a full-fledged partner of the total force in mission accomplishment. No longer categorized or marginalized as a strategic reserve with respect to force planning, the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve are providing such significant portions of the forces for missions across the entire spectrum of conflict that it has become apparent that the regular forces simply cannot accomplish the mission alone. This is a major reason for the necessity of identifying ways to facilitate participation by reserve members. One such concept is the continuum of service. This paper explains what the continuum of service is and what benefits it provides the Air Force. Additionally, this paper identifies some of the barriers that currently exist to establishing a true continuum of service and discusses some recent in-roads to those barriers as well as initiatives already begun and improvements needed in the future.
