The Navy Reserve is developing a mobile app to make it easier for reservists to report for duty using a solution that will come in handy if it ever activates the entire 50,000-member Selected Reserve.
The idea for the app came from Lt. Cmdr. Jonathan Calhoun’s own experience mobilizing in 2020 led him to wonder whether technology could streamline a dreary, administrative process and ease the burden on sailors scattered around the country without easy access to a reserve center.
Calhoun, spurred by a similar application by his civilian clients, developed an idea for a mobile app, compatible across all operating systems, that would enable reservists to report in and mobilize faster, especially if there was a short-notice, mass mobilization. He submitted it as part of the Navy Reserve’s inaugural “i3 Waypoints” innovation challenge and pitched his idea – “Leverage Mobile Technology to Streamline Mobilization” – to a panel at Fort Meade, Md., on June 28.
Of 107 proposals the Navy Reserve received this year, only five finalists were chosen to pitch their idea in person. Calhoun was one of them, and his idea won over the panelists – which included Vice Adm. John Mustin, the Chief of Navy Reserve and Navy Reserve Force commander – and his was the winning entry.
The Navy Reserve is “already moving out” on the app’s design, Mustin said in announcing the winner. “His idea to add mobile technology to our distributed activation process helps us achieve our goal of mobilizing the entire Selected Reserve force of 50,000 in 30 days if required.”
The command began i3 Waypoints “as a way to fast-track transformative ideas from across the Navy directly to the highest levels of the Navy Reserve, without filters or bureaucratic barriers,” according to the service. The name comes from “an approach to inventing: innovate something entirely new, improve on something already established, or integrate several ideas, products or processes rendering the former completely obsolete.”
Navy Reserve staff is working through the requirements to get the app built out and tailored for the specific Navy requirements, Calhoun said, “so when the call comes, everybody is ready from day one.”
When Calhoun mobilized in 2020, he had to travel to Expeditionary Combat Readiness Command in Norfolk, Va., where most reservists went to begin their mobilization process. While it wasn’t far for him, it was for many other reservists.
Now, as part of Mustin’s changes to the Reserve Force, reservists can just go to their local Navy reserve center, regardless of where they had gone previously. Now, the addition of an app on a smartphone will make that process easier since each reservist can complete and submit the necessary paperwork faster.
“The way in which we mobilize now is slightly different than the way we mobilized in previous years,” Calhoun said in an interview, particularly when mobilizing larger groups of reservists rather than one or a few. “When it comes time to mobilize the entire force, that’s something that can no longer be done in only a few locations.”
The Navy activated 1,300 reservists – medical and medical support staff – over a two-day period in the early days of the military’s COVID-19 pandemic relief mission in the spring 2020, Capt. Colette Murphy said. Those reservists helped staff about 48 hours, the hospital ships USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy and other COVID hot spots.
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