United States Navy Reserve The United States Navy Reserve , until 2005 known as the United States Naval Reserve , is the Reserve Component ( RC ) of the United States Navy . Members of the Navy Reserve , called Reservists , are enrolled in the Selected Reserve ( SELRES ) , the Individual Ready Reserve ( IRR ) , the Full Time Support ( FTS ) , or the Retired Reserve program . Types of Reservists . The largest cohort , the SELRES , have traditionally drilled one weekend a month and two weeks of annual training during the year , receiving base pay and certain special pays ( i . e . , flight pay , dive pay , etc . ) when performing inactive duty ( i . e . , IDT , aka " drills " ) and full pay and allowances while on active duty for Annual Training ( AT ) , Active Duty for Training ( ADT ) , Active Duty for Operational Support ( ADOS ) , Active Duty for Special Work ( ADSW ) , or under Mobilization ( MOB ) orders or otherwise recalled to full active duty . Most but not all states , along with Guam and Puerto Rico , have at least one Navy Operational Support Center ( NOSC ) ( formerly Naval Reserve Center ) , staffed by FTS personnel , where the SELRES Sailors come to do their weekend drills . The size of these centers varies greatly , depending on the number of assigned . They are intended mostly to handle administrative functions and classroom style training . However , some NOSCs have more extensive training facilities , including damage control trainers and small boat units . Some NOSCs are co - located on existing military facilities , but most are " outside - the - wire " , stand alone facilities that are often the only U . S . Navy representation in their communities or even the entire state . Because of this , NOSCs outside the fleet concentration areas are also heavily tasked to provide personnel , both FTS staff and SELRES , for participation in Funeral Honors Details . This solemn service provided to the local community is one of the NOSC ' s top two priority missions ( the other being training and mobilization of SELRES ) . Those SELRES assigned to front - line operational units , such as Naval Aviator s , Naval Flight Officer s , Naval Flight Surgeon s and enlisted personnel assigned to Navy Reserve or Active - Reserve Integrated ( ARI ) aviation squadrons and wings , or personnel assigned to major combatant command , Fleet and other major staff positions , are typically funded for far more duty than the weekend per month / two weeks per year construct , often well in excess of 100 man - days per year . SELRES have also performed additional duty in times of war or national crisis , often being recalled to full - time active duty for one , two or three or more years and deploying to overseas locations or aboard warships , as has been recently seen during Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom . FTS , previously known as TAR ( Training and Administration of the Reserve ) , serve in uniform all year round and provide administrative support to SELRES and operational support for the Navy . They are full - time career active duty personnel , but reside in the Reserve Component ( RC ) , and perform a role similar to Active Guard and Reserve ( AGR ) , Air Reserve Technician ( ART ) and Army Reserve Technician in the Air Force Reserve Command , the Air National Guard , the U . S . Army Reserve and the Army National Guard . The IRR do not typically drill or train regularly , but can be recalled to service in a full mobilization ( requiring a Presidential order ) . Some IRR personnel who are not currently assigned to SELRES billets , typically senior commissioned officers in the ranks of commander or captain for whom SELRES billets are limited , will serve in Volunteer Training Units ( VTU ) or will be support assigned to established active duty or reserve commands while in a VTU status . These personnel will drill for points but no pay and are not eligible for Annual Training with pay . However , they remain eligible for other forms of active duty with pay and mobilization . The mission of the Navy Reserve is to provide strategic depth and deliver operational capabilities to the Navy and Marine Corps team , and Joint forces , in the full range of military operations from peace to war . Reservists are called to active duty , or mobilized , as needed and are required to sign paperwork acknowledging this possibility upon enrollment in the reserve program . After the 11 September attacks of 2001 , Reservists were mobilized to support combat operations . The War on Terrorism has even seen the activation of a Reserve squadron , the VFA - 201 Hunters , flying F / A - 18 Hornet aircraft , which deployed on board the USS " Theodore Roosevelt " ( CVN - 71 ) . Additionally , more than 52 , 000 Navy Reservists have been mobilized and deployed to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan , including more than 8 , 000 who have done a second combat tour . They have served alongside Army , Marine , Air Force , Coast Guard and service personnel from other countries , performing such missions as countering deadly improvised explosive devices , constructing military bases , escorting ground convoys , operating hospitals , performing intelligence analysis , guarding prisoners , and doing customs inspections for units returning from deployments . The Reserve consists of 108 , 718 ( 64 , 715 SELRES and 44 , 003 IRR ) officers and enlisted personnel who serve in every state and territory as well as overseas as of September 2012 . History . Reflecting the importance of Reservists in the naval history of the United States , the first citizen Sailors put to sea even before the Continental Congress created the Continental Navy , forerunner of today ’ s U . S . Navy . On 12 June 1775 , inspired to act after hearing the news of Minutemen and British regulars battling on the fields of Lexington and Concord , citizens of the seaside town of Machias , Maine , commandeered the schooner Unity and engaged the British warship HMS Margaretta , boarding her and forcing her surrender after bitter close quarters combat . In the ensuing years of the American Revolution , the small size of the Continental Navy necessitated the service of citizen sailors , who put to sea manning privateers , their far - flung raids against the British merchant fleet as important as the sea battles of John Paul Jones in establishing the American naval tradition . Following the American Revolution , the expense of maintaining a standing navy was deemed too great , resulting in the selling of the last Continental Navy ship in 1785 . However , attacks by Barbary pirates against American merchant vessels in the Mediterranean Sea prompted a change in course in 1794 . A navy that helped give birth to the nation was now deemed essential to preserving its security , which faced its most serious threat during the War of 1812 . Not only did reservists raid British commerce on the high seas , but they also outfitted a fleet of barges called the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla in an effort to defend that vital body of water against British invasion . Though overwhelmed by an enemy superior in numbers , these men , most recruited from Baltimore , continued to wage war on land , joining in the defense of Washington , D . C . Having fought against a foreign power , naval reservists faced a much different struggle with the outbreak of the Civil War , which divided a navy and a nation . Within days of the attack , President Abraham Lincoln authorized an increase in the personnel levels of the Navy , which assumed an important role in the strategy to defeat the Confederacy with a blockade of the South and a campaign to secure control of the Mississippi River . By war ’ s end the Navy had grown from a force numbering 9 , 942 in 1860 to one manned by 58 , 296 sailors . A total of 101 , 207 men from twenty - one states enlisted during the war and volunteers were present during some of the storied naval engagements of the American Civil War , including serving in Monitor during her battle with CSS Virginia and the daring mission to destroy the Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle . The latter action resulted in the awarding of the Medal of Honor to six reserve enlisted men . With the lack of any major threat to the United States in the post - Civil War years , the U . S . Navy took on the appearance and missions of the force it had been in 1860 . Then came publication of naval theorist Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan ’ s landmark study The Influence of Sea Power Upon History , which in part prompted a modernization of the U . S . fleet and brought some of the first calls for an organized naval reserve to help man these more advanced ships . In the meantime , state naval militias represented the Navy ’ s manpower reserve , demonstrating their capabilities during the Spanish - American War in which they assisted in coastal defense and served aboard ship . Militiamen from Massachusetts , New York , Michigan , and Maryland manned four auxiliary cruisers — Prairie , Yankee , Yosemite , and Dixie — seeing action off Cuba . All told , some 263 officers and 3 , 832 enlisted men of various state naval militias answered the call to arms . As successful as the state naval militias were in the Spanish - American War , which made the United States a world power , the outbreak of World War I in 1914 demonstrated that a modern war at sea required a federal naval reserve force . Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and his assistant , a young New Yorker named Franklin D . Roosevelt , launched a campaign in Congress to appropriate funding for such a force . Their efforts brought passage of legislation on 3 March 1915 , creating the Naval Reserve Force , whose members served in the cockpits of biplanes and hunted enemy U - boats during the Great War . Though the financial difficulties of the Great Depression and interwar isolationism translated into difficult times for the Naval Reserve , the organizational structure persevered and expanded with the creation of Naval Aviation Cadet program and the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps . When World War II erupted on 1 September 1939 , the Naval Reserve was ready . By the summer of 1941 , virtually all of its members were serving on active duty , their numbers destined to swell when Japanese planes roared out of a clear blue sky over Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 . Navy reserve sailors from Minnesota aboard the USS Ward fired the first U . S . shots of World War II by sinking a Japanese mini - submarine outside the entrance to Pearl Harbor . Over the course of the ensuing four years , the Navy would grow from a force of 383 , 150 to one that at its peak numbered 3 , 405 , 525 , the vast majority of them reservists , including five future U . S . presidents . This began to change in the 1990s as over 21 , 000 Naval Reservists supported Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm , which coincided with the collapse of the Soviet Union . Since that time , whether responding to the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia or the threat of world terrorism , the latter coming to the forefront in the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001 , the recently renamed Navy Reserve has transformed from a force in waiting for massive mobilization to an integral component in carrying out the mission of the U . S . Navy . As Admiral William J . Fallon stated , “ We must remember that the Reserves , which represent twenty percent of our warfighting force , are absolutely vital to our Navy ’ s ability to fight and win wars now and in the future . ” While other Reserve components of other services each have an individual published history there is no comprehensive published official history in book form for the Naval Reserve . Commanders . Office of the Chief of Naval Reserve was established as Director of Naval Reserve , with the consolidation of the Navy Air and Surface Reserve headquarters organizations at the Naval Support Activity , NAS New Orleans , Louisiana in April 1973 . Enlisted entry and service . Persons who enlist in the Active duty program first sign a contract to enter the Ready Reserve for a period of time that coincides with time served as Active Duty . Upon separation from Active Duty , members may still be obligated by their reserve contract if it has not expired . The remainder of the contract may be served as a member of the Selected Reserve or the Individual Ready Reserve . Prior service enlistees may be able to affiliate with the Navy Reserve in their active duty rating ( job specialty ) and paygrade . Non - prior service enlistees are sent to Initial Active Duty Training ( IADT ) , also called boot camp , located at Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois ( same location as Active Duty training ) and qualify for a specific billet ( job ) in order to make their rate permanent . Very few ratings are available to non - prior service personnel . Based upon their skill sets , members will enter into service at paygrades E - 1 through E - 5 . Although non - prior service recruits are paid from their first day at the advanced pay grade , they are not entitled to wear the insignia signifying their rank until they successfully complete boot camp . After graduating from boot camp , the reservist usually trains at a Navy Operational Support Center ( NOSC ) again to complete the final " Phase IV " requirements . After that , he or she is sent to a reserve unit . Typically , the Reservist is required to drill one weekend every month and spend a consecutive two - week period every year at a regular Navy base or on board a ship . While training either for just a weekend or during the two weeks , the Reservist is on active duty and the full spectrum of rules and regulations , including the Uniform Code of Military Justice , apply .