CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
What is an Air Reserve component volunteer and what do they do? You may have heard the term ARCV or seen the acronym one time or another and asked yourself, what does that mean?
The ARCV is a program implemented by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force directly following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to enhance security procedures on installations. To prevent an increase in the amount of hours permanent, full-time members would be working, this ARCV program was created to allow eligible Airmen to help protect Air Force installations nationwide, as well as increase manning to comply with installation requirements.
These augmentee Airmen are members of the Air Force Reserve who serve part-time. They include your traditional Reservists, Guardsmen and individual mobilization augmentees.
Traditional Reservists are members who serve where they live. The reserve component represents the majority of the reserve forces and they are members who usually serve one weekend a month and are on temporary duty status two weeks out of the year. These Airmen also work full-time positions as civilian employees.
National Guardsman can be called up for active duty by the state governors to help respond to domestic emergencies and disasters, such as those caused by hurricanes, floods and earthquakes.
IMA Reservists make up one of the most flexible and cost-effective elements of the Total Force. IMAs are usually assigned to active-duty Air Force units in order to support contingency operations and are prior active-duty members who normally augment units and serve individually at locations around the world. The Airmen who make up these different reserve categories all willingly volunteer to accept this duty at active-duty bases.
Once selected, the Airmen report to their duty location and go through a one-to-two week security forces augmentee training program before assuming duties. Once fully trained, they perform force-protection duties such as manning installation entry-control points, and working vehicle inspection stations as a patrolman or as a desk sergeant. While these Airmen volunteer to augment security forces squadrons during the week, many still perform their reserve duties on the weekends. They report to their units once a month to continue with their regularly scheduled training.
These same volunteers when not performing security forces augmentee duties also deploy in record numbers to support the Global War on Terror, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
Working on active duty is an amazing experience. As a Reservist with the 315th Mission Support Squadron, I've been on active duty with the 437th Security Forces squadron since March of 2006. I've learned a lot about many of the programs and processes that active duty performs on a daily basis. The experience and knowledge I've gained from security forces squadron while being on active duty, I'll carry with me back to my Reserve unit.