Army Reserve Moves into 100th Year !

The Army Reserve celebrated its 100th Anniversary on April 23. On that day in 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt created the Army’s first federal Reserve forces, the Medical Reserve Corps. By 1912, the Reserve had expanded to include civilians beyond the medical profession.

The Army Reserve’s first mobilization came when tensions rose between Mexico and the United States in 1916. The Reserve—which then included the Officers Reserve Corps, the Enlisted Reserve Corps and the Reserve Officers Training Corps—expanded dramatically during World War I. By the end of World War II, in 1945, the Army Reserve was large, with more than 200,000 Reserve soldiers serving on active duty. Women were authorized to join the Organized Reserve in 1948.

Army Reservists have been called to serve at home during national emergencies like Hurricane Katrina and overseas in such conflicts as the Korea War, Berlin Crisis, Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam War, Operation Just Cause, Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Operation Restore Hope in Somalia, and in peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Kosovo. More than 180,000 Army Reserve soldiers have served in the Global War on Terror since Sept. 11, 2001.

To read more about the history of the Army Reserve, visit the DoD Web site.