This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest.RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.Support RAND Make a tax-deductible charitable contribution at www.rand.org/giving/contribute www.rand.org iii PrefaceThis document reports the results of the study "Army Accessions Prior Service-Civil Life Gains and Continuum of Service Market Potential Study," which aimed to improve the active component (AC) to reserve component (RC) transition process of former active-duty soldiers. To this end, we focus on identifying and characterizing the personnel who are most likely to transition from the AC to the RC and the typical timing of transitions. We also examine the effects of other factors, such as the civilian unemployment rate or the location of the last AC base, on this decision.We describe our findings, which are based on both qualitative information from focus groups and quantitative estimates from personnel data, in this document. The findings should be of interest to RC policymakers and staff concerned with recruiting and retaining reserve personnel.

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