The Army Reserve will end the fiscal year at the end of September 3,000 to 5,000 recruits short of its annual goal, the chief of the Reserve force said.

Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly had warned in a December memo that the Army Reserve force, with an estimated year-end strength of about 190,000 soldiers, "is rapidly degenerating into a 'broken' force' " with demands in Iraq and Afghanistan putting the command in danger of being unable to meet other Pentagon missions.

He also complained of "dysfunctional" Army and Pentagon policies hampering areas such as training, the Baltimore Sun reported.

"We've now moved past that. The issues that I cited there have been addressed," he said, adding Congress has been supportive of modernizing recruitment and retention efforts.

"I must tell you, I'm very pleased with retention in the Army Reserve," Helmly said. Pentagon officials reported in July that retention — keeping service members in, was "very strong."

Helmly, meeting with reporters last week in Honolulu, said about half of the U.S. troops in Iraq are National Guard and Reserve soldiers — a total expected to drop to 35 percent to 40 percent in the next big troop rotation.

To counter the recruiting trend, Helmly said the Army Reserve is reorganizing, has a new ad campaign emphasizing service to country to attract recruits, and a new goal of five years between deployments.

Helmly, a Vietnam veteran who has led the Army Reserve for the past three years, said he recently told Congress it was insufficient to worry about monthly and annual goals for force manning. Rather, it was necessary to look "in a more strategic horizon two to five years out."

The Reserve, until recently, had "thought about (this) to the end of our nose," Helmly said.

Part of the change has to do with how the Reserve seeks recruits.

"Two years ago, they promised two weeks in summer, one weekend a month, extra money for college — with very little discussion or emphasis on service, or being a warrior," Helmly said.

He recently told the House Armed Services Committee that $250 million was budgeted for the new ad campaign. "All of our ads now emphasize service, honor ... duty, (as being) an integral part of the United States Army and thus, subject to active duty," Helmly said.

The Army National Guard and Reserve make up about 55 percent to 60 percent of the total Army, but the regular Army is being increased by 30,000 for a total of 512,000 soldiers, which will build in some "rotational depth," Helmly said, meaning fewer deployments.

The Army Reserve largely is intended to complement the regular Army by providing specialized combat service and service support skills. The Reserve provides more than 95 percent of the Army's internment brigades, railway units, judge advocate general units, training and exercise divisions, and civil affairs units. It also provides more than two-thirds of the Army's psychological operations, chemical units, hospitals and medical groups.

With high demands placed on those units in Iraq and Afghanistan, some of those mission sets will be transferred to regular Army units.

The traditional role of some Army Reserve units kept the soldiers away from the front lines, but the war in Iraq showed that all soldiers can face combat.

"We have been pushing to tell people that first of all, you are a warrior, and you must be prepared to engage the enemy in close combat," Helmly said.

The sole infantry battalion in the Army Reserve, the Hawai'i-based 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry of World War II fame, will remain a Pacific unit, he said.

A required change will be for the unit to work closer with its parent 29th Brigade of the Hawai'i National Guard.

There had been a "little mutual tension" between the two elements, Helmly noted.

"My suspicion is that many of the soldiers in both organizations didn't treat their training all that seriously (because of a lack of deployment)," Helmly said. "I don't think you're going to have any problem at all getting peoples' attention now."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.