Individual Ready Reserve The Individual Ready Reserve ( IRR ) is a category of the Ready Reserve of the Reserve Component of the Armed Forces of the United States composed of former active duty or reserve military personnel and is authorized under . For soldiers in the National Guard of the United States , its counterpart is the Inactive National Guard ( ING ) . As of 22 June 2004 , the IRR had approximately 112 , 000 members ( does not include all service IRR populations ) composed of enlisted personnel and officers , with more than 200 Military Occupational Specialties are represented , including combat arms , combat support , and combat service support . An individual assigned to the IRR typically receives no pay and is not obligated to drill , conduct annual training , or participate in any military activities ( except for periodic Muster activities ) until activated by Presidential Reserve Callup Authority or until electing to drill , train , or serve in a " Drill without Pay " or an " Active Duty " role . Unlike members of the Standby Reserve ( active and inactive ) and Retired Reserve , IRR personnel are members of the Ready Reserve and as such , they retain their status as uniformed military personnel , their military specialty ( i . e . , pilot , Surface Warfare Officer , infantryman , intelligence officer or enlisted intelligence specialist , etc . ) and rank / pay grade . IRR personnel also receive benefits similar to other members of the Reserve Components of the Armed Forces to include : Entitlement to a Military ID Card , ID Cards for their dependents , PX / BX / NEX / MCX / CGX ( Exchange ) benefits , Commissary benefits , and MWR ( Morale Welfare and Recreation ) Benefits . ( Note : These benefits are only available to IRR Members in the " CONUS " 48 States . ) An individual assigned to the IRR may receive pay and full benefits ( including medical care and dental care for member and dependents ) for voluntarily performing specific types of active duty . Because members of the IRR rarely serve on extended active duty and are not retired from military service most are not eligible for TRICARE . However , if honorably discharged , they do have the VA for medical benefits . GAO : DOD Actions Needed to Improve the Efficiency of Mobilizations for Reserve Forces < / ref > By law , IRR members are required to retain possession of their service uniforms , retain their military identification card , and notify their service branch if they move and change their address . Upon being called up , service members will usually be screened for their medical and personal status in order to qualify or disqualify them for activation . During the process , IRR members who seek to delay , defer , or exempt their activations have the opportunity to present their case to the mobilization authority for a decision . An enlisted service member ' s IRR service ends after the completion of their mandatory service obligation ( MSO ) , usually 8 years . The Individual Ready Reserve , Selected Reserve , and Inactive National Guard comprise the three Ready Reserve programs . Callup authority and activation . " Presidential Reserve Callup Authority " ( PRCA ) is a provision of a public law ( US Code , Title 10 ( DOD ) , section 12304 ) that provides the President a means to activate , without a declaration of national emergency , not more than 200 , 000 members of the Selected Reserve and the Individual Ready Reserve ( of whom not more than 30 , 000 may be members of the Individual Ready Reserve ) , for not more than 400 days to meet the support requirements of any operational mission . Members called under this provision may not be used for disaster relief or to suppress insurrection . This authority has particular utility when used in circumstances in which the escalatory national or international signals of partial or full mobilization would be undesirable . Forces available under this authority can provide a tailored , limited - scope , deterrent or operational response , or may be used as a precursor to any subsequent mobilization . When the nation is under a presidentially declared state of national emergency in accordance with the National Emergencies Act the President has even broader authority , allowing him to activate not more than 1 , 000 , 000 members of the Ready Reserve with no further limitation . The United States has been in a state of national emergency since November 14 , 1979 . When activated by Presidential Reserve Callup Authority , soldiers are required to follow the activation instructions contained in Army Regulation 135 - 91 specifying that members of the IRR can be required to join an Army Reserve unit if they are statutorily obligated and have a skill needed by the Army . Reserve soldiers are normally obligated to serve up to two years active duty , a requirement that is waiverable by the individual soldier , mission constraints , or the needs of the Army . The Uniform Code of Military Justice ( UCMJ ) , the portion of public law that primarily governs the military as a subset of the general population , is applicable to soldiers activated from the Individual Ready Reserve as of the date that their activating orders require them to report . This subjects them to the possibility of punishment under UCMJ for being Absent Without Leave ( AWOL ) if they choose to resist activation . Activations in the War on Terror . Until the War on Terror , members of the Individual Ready Reserve had not been called up since Operation Desert Storm . A major difficulty in activating the IRR stems from the fact that many of its members , typically those from the junior enlisted ranks , are unaware that they are even in the military . This results from such members typically being informed that they are " discharged " upon release from active duty when in fact they have been transferred to the inactive reserves . To solve this situation , many military separation transition courses now spend additional time explaining the nature of the inactive reserve . As of 2005 , the military also began to enact " IRR Musters " which were once a year occurrences where an IRR member would be required to report to a military base , confirm their personal and contact information , and sign acknowledgment paperwork that they were members of the IRR . The military has encountered isolated incidents of IRR members who " disappear " and cannot be located or IRR members who refuse to mobilize , stating they were advised that they were " out of the military " . This normally has little impact on benefits obtained following release from active duty , but can lead to a less - than - honorable discharge from the reserves . Army . In March 2004 , Army Human Resources Command began identifying IRR soldiers with Military Occupational Specialties that met the needs of the Army at that time . In June 2004 , those soldiers were transferred into Selected Reserve units to begin drilling , training , and preparing for deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom . Marines . The Marines began activating their IRR members beginning in 2001 . They were allotted up to 2500 Marines to be activated at any one time . So far , two major activations have occurred , targeting mostly Corporals and Sergeants and those with high - demand training ( combat arms , logistics , maintenance , etc . ) . History of War on Terror activations . February 2003 : 29 July 2004 : April 2005 : August 2006 : March 2007 : They were used for early rotation into a 2008 deployment . If more troops were needed , another recall was planned for July . August 2007 : April 2008 : As of March 2009 , the US Army had recalled 26 , 954 ready reservists since September 11 , 2001 . Of those , 10 , 592 requested exemptions of which 6 , 352 were granted . Delay , Deferment & Exemption ( DD & E ) . Delay , Deferment and Exemption ( DD & E ) are the methods by which a service member may be relieved of immediate activation .