Frag Out! Magazine
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extent strained, because they made up a small percentage of all privates) — privates le- aving for civilian life be- came marginal. The reason was simple: they could remain in their position with only a ju- nior rank for decades, even up to age 50, provided they re- ceived positive periodic eva- luations and passed physical training. There was no longer any need to promote to NCO — so people stayed. This essen- tially killed the system of recruiting reserves, because what remained could hardly be called military qualification; the average age of a Polish Armys reservist today is ro - ughly 50 years. A reservist, not merely "a person classi- fied as fit for service" — i.e., someone who in the event of war could almost immediately serve in their assigned po- sition. Of course there is also the fitness problem among these 50-year-olds (and youn- ger reservists): a large por- tion of them are about half as fit as they were during active service, whether that was ge- neral, extended, or professio- nal service.[UZ1] In any case, reserve recruit- ment at present is in agony. It is hard to speak of "recru- iting reserves" when we consi- der those reserve soldiers who completed the Voluntary Basic Military Service (Dobrowol- na Zasadnicza Służba Wojsko- wa — DZSW), a very basic 27- day course (their training is at a unitary, general-servi- ce level), or when we speak of "recruiting" reserves in the form of soldiers of the Territorial Military Service (TSW, which in any case is a form of personnel reserve) who then resign from service. In the vast majority, their tra - ining level does not differ from that of DZSW soldiers. The only advantage of these two "recruiting" initiatives is that they gradually lower the average age of rank-and-fi - le reservists — unfortunately, without increasing their tra- ining level, and with regard to military specialties — even decreasing it, because we are largely "recruiting" person- nel trained only at a basic level in mechanized troops. [Nieznany 2] To those two methods of acquiring reserve personnel should be added schemes such as "Holidays with the Army," which are poorer copies of DZSW and should be regarded more as encouragement to un - dergo military training than as training per se. With such reserve resources, the army — through territo- rial administration, i.e., the Military Recruitment Centers (WCR), formerly Military Re- cruitment Commands (WKU) — manages and summons people for exercises. The WCRs' administrative sys- tem is supposed to deliver to military units reserve sol- diers with appropriate mili- tary specialties who are then to be called up for reserve exercises in order to mainta- in and develop their knowled- ge and skills, especially in so-called technical services. WCR' efficiency is measured by the "number of heads" that show up for exercises, and already at the point of induc- tion pathological situations arise. Sick people, or those on medical leave, are someti- mes persuaded to still report for induction and then pre- sent their medical documenta- tion there — this is driven by the fact that WCR are held accountable for attendance and — very often — reservists are "shifted" from one unit to another just so they can be called up. In such situations mobilization assignments and military service are someti- mes assigned practically at random. A man called up for exercises very often has no idea about his mobilization assignment www.fragoutmag.com