Keddrick Corday Thompson Requests IRR Memorandum Draft -- Intro

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Keddrick Corday Thompson contacted me. He wanted me to provide him with a draft of an IRR memorandum. At issue?

His unit was set to activate, mobilize, and then deploy to Texas. He felt that such a deployment was going to upset his "work-life" balance. This disruption was going to negatively impact his responsibilities to his family, service to his community, income from his employment/contracts, etc.

So, he wanted to transfer to the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR). He felt that such a transfer would de-conflict things in his favor.

So, I asked him a series of questions to get more details. The following posts illustrate a key repeating theme when Soldiers request to go into the IRR. Although the Soldiers making this request believe that they have a powerful case to make, the Army may think otherwise.

Keddrick Corday Thompson needed to provide the Army with a compelling reason to approve his IRR request. Based on my questioning, and on his response, I saw that he was not going to have a strong case. I presented to him what the Army would think and consider. Thompson found an explanation as to why the Army's solutions "would not work". However, his explanations were weak and I informed him of what his approval chances were.

The following exchange is something that Soldiers, considering an IRR packet, should seriously consider. The advice that I gave Keddrick Thompson, regarding what his pocket would need to be stronger, is advice that soldiers should consider when submitting a packet.

Keddrick Corday Thompson's comments are as he wrote them. The interaction is listed in order.

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