VIRGINIA BEACH, VA – Conclusions from the Navy’s active-Reserve integration study may be used to contribute Navy support in Iraq and in other combat areas, according to Adm. William Fallon, commander of Fleet Forces Command.

Fallon said officials “just” completed the assessment, which looked at almost every billet and unit in the Naval Reserve to identify the real requirements and capabilities in the Reserve and how they could be matched with the active force.

It produced “very remarkable results” Fallon said here Sept. 29 in a speech at a conference sponsored by the U.S. Naval Institute. He added that the chief of naval operations suggested extending the study to the whole Navy when he was briefed on it.

“We still got a lot of work to go, but we now have a very, very good look at where we stand,” Fallon said.

“One of the objectives has been achieved, and that is to get the active force to take responsibility for Naval Reserve,” Fallon explained.

The Navy is matching every single Reserve entity -- units and individuals -- to a part of the active force, he added. A lot of people asked for a lot of things, Fallon said. After discussions, he noted, some of those “appetites have been curbed a little bit. But the capabilities are recognized, acknowledged, desired. OK, you want them? Fine. Now you’re going to come back to me and give me a plan on how you’re going to get these people trained and you’re going to be held accountable for their performance.”

“Some months ago” the Navy started requiring that reservists have their fitness reports written by the active personnel to whom they report, he said. The completion of the study allows the Navy to consider other things, he added. The ongoing challenges in Iraq, he explained, have left the Marine Corps and the Army “stretched pretty thin in a lot of areas” while the Navy is “sitting here relatively unpressured” in comparison, and the Navy is anxious to see what it can do to help, he said. He acknowledged that some capabilities would not be compatible, but there are skills that could be used.

While conducting the reservists drill, Fallon noted that officials identified a “significant number of billets that are absolutely not essential to today’s Navy.” During the next few months they plan to take those billets and convert them to skill sets that could be used in the combat regions.