After Vietnam the Guard and Reserve were deliberately given missions that
made it IMPOSSIBLE to have a medium to major scale war without significant
callups.

Just so. Take civil affairs, for example. During the 1980s, there was
no civil affairs unit in the U.S. Army. I believe the same was
(perhaps is) true of chemical warfare. The army got rid of these
specialist jobs to the guard, just as it got rid of KP to civilian
contractors.

all the best -- Dan Ford
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