LISA M. HARRINGTON, THOMAS BUSH, KELLY ATKINSON, NATHAN CHANDLER, GREGORY A. SCHUMACHER
A Case Study on the
Potential Benefits of
Reserve Component
Duty Status Reform
The U.S. Department of Defense’s
COVID-19 Response
I
n January 2020, the first case of a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was detected in the
United States, and concerns quickly grew that the country’s health care system would be over-
whelmed with cases of infection by the novel virus (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
2020). By March 2020, National Guard and Reserve members were participating in the national
response to the COVID-19 pandemic
sweeping the country. From the very
outset of the nation’s response, the
complexity of reserve component
duty statuses caused challenges in
not only mobilizing National Guard
and Reserve members but also fund-
ing those mobilizations, ensuring
that members received appropriate
benefits associated with their time on
duty, and demobilizing the members.
For instance, on March 13, 2020,
President Donald Trump declared the
COVID-19 outbreak a national emer-
gency (Trump, 2020a; Ott, 2021, p. 1).
On March 22, 2020, the President
issued a memorandum authorizing
100 percent federal funding for full-
KEY FINDINGS
■ National Guard and Reserve personnel mobilized and utilized
during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic made
key contributions to provision of medical care, logistics and
administration of care facilities, testing, vaccine administration,
and mortuary affairs. The National Guard mobilized a much larger
share of personnel to the pandemic response than did the service
reserves.
■ Under the current duty status system, reserve component person-
nel mobilized in response to COVID-19 experienced hardships in
their experiences activating, accessing benefits, and demobilizing.
■ The U.S. Department of Defense’s proposed reformed duty con-
struct, which as of mid-2025 is pending submission in a future
legislative cycle, consolidates the overly complex and problematic
current system of duty statuses into four broad duty categories.
This construct would alleviate many of the inequities and hard-
ships that reserve component personnel experienced during the
COVID-19 response and streamline and clarify pathways for mobi-
lizing reserve component members in emergency scenarios.
Research Report
