Reservists from 14 Asia-Pacific nations gathered in Honolulu in August 1996 for the eighth annual Pacific Armies Reserve Component Seminar (PARCS). The week-long conference was hosted by Hq., U.S. Army Pacific. The executive agent for the conference providing the administrative and logistical support for the delegates was the 9th U.S. Army Reserve Command's Pacific Army Liaison Command (PALCOM).

The theme for this year's PARCS was "The Reservist, A Focus On The Individual, The Unit and Society's Support." The objective of PARCS is to give the Reservists of the Pacific region a forum to discuss common problems and to exchange solutions and ideas. It also promotes professional understanding and improvement of regional Army relations.

The seminar included guest speakers, delegate's presentations on their countries' armies, discussion groups, briefings at U.S. Pacific Command and U.S. Army Pacific headquarters, and a visit to the Hawaii National Guard training facility on Bellows Air Force Station.

The PARCS delegates represented countries with a variety of different reserve component situations. Some, like Australia and New Zealand, have long-established reserve forces with proud traditions and histories. Others are revamping their existing reserve force or developing a reserve force where none previously existed. All welcomed an opportunity to learn from the experiences of their Pacific neighbors.

The first PARCS, held in 1989, had delegates from four countries. The 1996 PARCS included representatives from Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, the People's Republic of China, Fiji, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the United States. The U.S. delegates came from both the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard. The U.S. Army's unique dual federal and state reserve components generated a considerable amount of discussion among delegates from nations without such a dual reserve system.

Lt. Gen. William M. Steele, the USARPAC commanding general, set the stage for the conference at the opening session. He noted that while America's active Army traced its beginning back to 1775, the reserve components could trace their origins back to the 1600s.

"The reserves were important then; they're important now," Lt. Gen. Steele said. The citizens of America never wanted a large standing army, he noted. However, during World War II and the Cold War, the active component grew to be the larger component, but that has changed. Today the reserve components are larger than the active component.

With that in mind, Lt. Gen. Steele gave the PARCS VIII delegates three challenges to consider and discuss during the course of the conference.

"First," he said, "the reserves must be relevant. The nation must be committed to using them, not just during war but during peacetime, too."

Second, he continued, the reserves must have the same standards of performance as the active component force. The nation is not committed to its reserves if they are given a lesser standard.

Finally, Lt. Gen. Steele said, he wanted all the delegates to get to know one another and to participate fully in PARCS discussions. When a Pacific crisis occurs, today's PARCS delegate could be tomorrow's partner in a combined task force.

Lt. Gen. Steele was followed by Maj. Gen. Max Baratz, Chief of the U.S. Army Reserve and Commanding General, U.S. Army Reserve Command. Maj. Gen. Baratz reiterated Lt. Gen. Steele's comment that there was only one U.S. Army-wide standard, whether active or reserve. The challenge for the reserve components is meeting that challenge with much less training time than the active force. He described the U.S. Army Reserve as an "expeditionary force", with reservists having been called up recently for duty in Somalia, Haiti and currently serving in Bosnia.

Maj. Gen. Baratz answered another of Lt. Gen. Steele's challenges, the one dealing with relevance. "We [The Army Reserve] are relevant. We are fully trained. We are fully equipped in those units that need to be. .... The Army can not move without us."

Maj. Gen. Baratz concluded his remarks by explaining an aspect of the reserve components that is common among many, if not most, of the other nations represented at PARCS - the truly national basis of reserve forces. "There are a little less than 1,500 units in the U.S. Army Reserve from everywhere in America. When we go, we bring the best of our country with us," he said.

Much of what the New Zealand delegates briefed was similar to the themes discussed by Maj. Gen. Baratz. While the New Zealand Regular Force is located in four main locations, New Zealand's reserves - the Territorial Force - is located throughout the nation. Also like the U.S. Army, the New Zealand Reserves are tightly interlinked with the Regular Army, explained the New Zealand delegates. For example, the fourth company in a New Zealand infantry battalion is a Territorial Force unit, and ten per cent of any deploying New Zealand unit are Territorial Force soldiers.

The delegate from the Royal Thai Army represented another respect of reserve development, an army in the process of undergoing a major revamping of its previous reserve system. Hopefully, PARCS provided the Royal Thai Army delegate an opportunity to observe ideas and structures from the examples of other regional armies.

Lt. Gen. Steele's third challenge, about getting to know one another, was taken up with gusto by the delegates, according to Col. Harold F. Blewitt, Jr. of PALCOM, PARCS VIII Chairman.

"The networking between delegates started very early, much earlier than in the other two PARCS I've worked," Col. Blewitt said. "There's been a tremendous amount of interaction and the levels of discussion generated are really thought-provoking. The benefit of this dialogue and increased interaction is that we've taken PARCS to an even higher level."

Col. Blewitt attributed much of the success of PARCS VIII to the interest shown in it by both Lt. Gen. Steele and by Maj. Gen. Stephen Silvasy, Jr., USARPAC Deputy Commanding General. Maj. Gen. Silvasy briefed the delegates on Interoperability and then led a group discussion of the subject, which was one of the most prominent topics of PARCS VIII.

PARCS VIII concluded with presentations by the various groups with their ideas on the seminar topics of interoperability, employer support, career management and retention/recruitment. For the men and women of PALCOM, however, the end of PARCS VIII meant only one thing: it was time to start getting ready for PARCS IX in 1998.