Ready Reserve Fleet Activations: The View from the Deckplates

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe 2 August 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and its subsequent political developments quickly led to the recognition that a “military solution” was at least a possibility. To support the large military logistics effort that would obviously be required, a mass activation of the nation's Ready Reserve Force commenced on 9 August 1990. By early 1991, over seventy ships had been designated for activation. This enormous effort severely strained the resources of the Ready Reserve program, as well as the commercial ship repair industry in the United States. It also overloaded the already limited resource pool of available mariners to man the ships. Although several foreign charters were initially necessary to meet the demand, within a short time the availability of successfully activated U. S. reserve fleet ships grew to fill the wartime need. This article reviews the National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) and the current posture of the Ready Reserve Force (RRF) activation program, provides several firsthand examples of how activations are played out on the deckplates, and presents a summary of lessons learned; all in search of improvements which might make the process even more successful when the RRF is needed again in the future.