Are you or someone you love a military retiree?  Think you or a loved one can't be called into the Individual Ready Reserve?

Don't bet on it.

I called my Mom today.  This isn't unusual, as we chat regularly.  We catch each other up on the latest in our lives in the past 72 hours, but I am absolutely unprepared for the next thing she tells me.

She mentions that someone from my hometown is being called up, quite possibly to go to Iraq.