While the long-term effects of the novel coronavirus 19 (COVID-19) remain unknown, in the short term, governments and business have resorted to unprecedented actions to mitigate the spread of the virus. Telecommuting and social distancing are the buzzwords of the day. The U.S. military is not immune to the threat as reports emerge of sailors who recently have tested positive for COVID-19. Maintaining the mobilization readiness of the Coast Guard Reserve force is particularly challenging during this time given the number of reservists who travel long distances to report for Inactive Duty for Training (IDT) and Active Duty for Training–Annual Training (ADT-AT).
To provide local commands the flexibility to make an informed decision about their unit needs and the safety of their members, ALCOAST 086/20 authorizes the change, reschedule or cancelation of IDT drills for March 2020. However, these changes do not relieve the member of their responsibility to meet certain yearly point thresholds to achieve a qualifying year of service for retirement or a Coast Guard Reserve Good Conduct Medal. Presumably, members will be allowed to make up these IDT drills later in the year, but that likely would mean batching drills during the week, which would take additional time from civilian jobs or school.
This may discourage reserve members from making up training periods which would be a loss for a reserve force that has limited training opportunities through the year. The Coast Guard Reserve does have the means of delivering quality training opportunities remotely through electronic-based distance learning (EBDL), sometimes called correspondence courses. These remote courses provide training from the Emergency Management Institute, Defense Acquisition University, and several other war colleges. The preapproved courses fall into two categories: command directed (eligible for both pay and inactive duty retirement points) and non-command directed (only eligible for inactive duty retirement points). Out of 184 EBDL courses, only three are approved as command directed and eligible for pay.
Most reservists who complete these courses fall under the non-command-directed category; they do this to add retirement points to their record and advance their personal and professional knowledge. Coast Guard leadership should provide guidance to local commands giving them broad authority to grant approval for EBDL courses to make up for canceled the IDT drill period in March. Many of the available courses relate directly to COVID-19 response efforts; for example, Introduction to Hazard Mitigation, Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Schools, Preparing for Mass Casualty Events, and Orientation to Hazardous Materials for Medical Personnel, to name a few. Other courses deal with natural disaster response, a mission the Coast Guard Reserve has been called on to perform many times.
It is likely that there are Coast Guard reservists who are temporarily out of work because of the widespread closure of businesses across the country. Without a paycheck, they will struggle to provide for themselves and their families. With many commands prudently cancelling the March IDT drill periods, these members have lost the opportunity to pull in a paycheck. With clear guidance from Coast Guard leadership there is an opportunity to deliver relevant training to the reserve force while paying members the equivalent drill pay they would have earned in March. This is an unprecedented time that requires flexibility and as Admiral Karl Schultz’s 13 March 2020 statement to the workforce indicated, “Through this challenging period, we must be resilient.”[3] Allowing reserve members the opportunity to receive IDT pay for completing electronic-based distance learning courses advances operational readiness and keeps the Coast Guard “Semper Paratus—Always Ready.”
