Assessing the Effect of Mobilization on Enlisted Reserve Retention

Retention of personnel is as important for United States military organizations as it is for any organization to ensure continuity and effectiveness. The demands that the current long-term conflicts place on the military have affected the Navy, both Active and Reserves. Naval personnel are asked to do missions on shore with ground units in an Individual Augmentation IA billet. Many of these IA billets have been filled by mobilized reservists, particularly to the operations in Iraq OIF and Afghanistan OEF. This thesis uses standard statistical modeling techniques to quantify the effects of these mobilizations on enlisted and officer retention, and in particular, mobilizations to certain operations, on retention. The results concluded that the operation that the enlisted reservist was mobilized to was the most important factor in determining retention. The reservists paygrade and rating were also significant factors in predicting attrition. These results can help the Naval Reserve manage its manpower flows.