ADT or Active Duty

I was reminded yesterday of what may seem a minor issue when looking at an LES of a deployed soldier brought to me at my Veteran's association. Seems the soldier’s parent did not understand why the status for the Reserve soldier reflects active duty for training (ADT) when the soldier is in fact hardly training, but rather serving in a combat theater at the moment. I noted my own LES from my deployment reflected AT/ADT when I was in Iraq as well.

I imagine a bureaucrat in Army can tell me the reason for the coding to reflect AT/ADT when in fact a Reserve soldier is on Active duty. But try to explain that to veteran organizations, family members and others. Also note that at least for me, and I suspect other Reserve soldiers, its more of the “your still a Reservist” mentality creeping in so that even you pay document cannot note that you are on Active Duty and not some “training period”.

It may seem like a little thing – but it is an irritant. How about we change the status to reflect active duty when appropriate on a document we send to about 70000 soldiers that are deployed every two weeks and note they are not just training. It is just a little thing.