What This Field Means
Whether the unit belongs to the regular force, Reserve, National Guard, or another supported component.
This distinguishes regular, Reserve, and National Guard organizations within or alongside a service. Veterans often need this distinction because units with similar designations can belong to different components and have different chains of administration.
How to Read It Correctly
Force Component is not Armed Service and not readiness or mobilization status. A Reserve unit can be mobilized or deployed without becoming part of the Regular component.
Example
Regular, Army Reserve, Air National Guard, or Coast Guard Reserve.
Technical Specification
The database column is [USMIL-Unit].[Unit].[ForceComponent]. Required component summary mapped to the force-component ontology. The current field contains both canonical values and evidence-specific variants.
Use one or more supported controlled component values as the evidence requires. Do not infer component from location, naming style, or a temporary operational relationship.
| Property | Definition or current value |
|---|---|
| Database column | ForceComponent |
| Column order | 15 |
| SQL data type | nvarchar(128) |
| Kind of information | Ontology-controlled classification with a scalar Unit-table summary |
| Cardinality | Unit table: one scalar summary per row. Ontology dimension: multiple; time-varying: true. |
| Required | Yes |
| Database default | No database default |
| Key or relationship | None |
| Database check constraint | ([CurrentStatus]=N'Planned' OR [CurrentStatus]=N'Status unknown' OR [CurrentStatus]=N'Historical' OR [CurrentStatus]=N'Inactive' OR [CurrentStatus]=N'Current') |
| Live population | 9341 of 9341 Unit records (100%) |
| Distinct nonblank values in the live table | 63 |
| Live profile measured | September 2, 2026, 20:43 UTC |
Allowed Values and Definitions
The complete active controlled vocabulary is listed below. The ontology is authoritative for normalized options. Narrative or legacy phrases found in the scalar Unit-table column are current data expressions, not additional approved options.
| Ontology property | Definition |
|---|---|
| Ontology dimension | Force component |
| Dimension number | 8 |
| Ontology definition | Regular, Guard, Reserve, or another supported force component. |
| Ontology cardinality | multiple |
| Changes over time | Yes |
| Active controlled options | 15 |
| Canonical option | Code | Plain-language definition | Technical definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown | unknown | The evidence reviewed so far does not establish a value. | No supported value is asserted; this is an evidentiary state, not a positive classification. |
| Not applicable | not-applicable | This question does not apply to this kind of unit or relationship. | The dimension is intentionally inapplicable to the subject type; it is not missing data. |
| Unresolved | unresolved | The unit is known, but the available evidence does not yet settle this particular point. | Confirms that resolution remains open after review without asserting a competing value. |
| Needs review | needs-review | The retained evidence needs additional review before a reliable value can be shown. | Places the assertion in a review-required disposition rather than accepting a substantive value. |
| Source conflict | source-conflict | Reliable sources disagree, so the guide preserves the disagreement instead of choosing one silently. | Records an unresolved conflict among retained sources and prevents false canonical certainty. |
| Regular | regular | Regular identifies the active, standing component of the applicable armed service rather than a Reserve or National Guard component. | Controlled force-component code 'regular' in ontology Dimension 8. It classifies Regular, Reserve, or Guard affiliation independently of service, mobilization, and deployment posture. |
| Army National Guard | army-national-guard | Army National Guard identifies the Army Guard component of a state, territory, or the District of Columbia. | Controlled force-component code 'army-national-guard' in ontology Dimension 8. It classifies Regular, Reserve, or Guard affiliation independently of service, mobilization, and deployment posture. |
| Army Reserve | army-reserve | Army Reserve identifies the federal reserve component of the United States Army. | Controlled force-component code 'army-reserve' in ontology Dimension 8. It classifies Regular, Reserve, or Guard affiliation independently of service, mobilization, and deployment posture. |
| Navy Reserve | navy-reserve | Navy Reserve identifies the reserve component of the United States Navy. | Controlled force-component code 'navy-reserve' in ontology Dimension 8. It classifies Regular, Reserve, or Guard affiliation independently of service, mobilization, and deployment posture. |
| Marine Corps Reserve | marine-corps-reserve | Marine Corps Reserve identifies the reserve component of the United States Marine Corps. | Controlled force-component code 'marine-corps-reserve' in ontology Dimension 8. It classifies Regular, Reserve, or Guard affiliation independently of service, mobilization, and deployment posture. |
| Air National Guard | air-national-guard | Air National Guard identifies the Air Guard component of a state, territory, or the District of Columbia. | Controlled force-component code 'air-national-guard' in ontology Dimension 8. It classifies Regular, Reserve, or Guard affiliation independently of service, mobilization, and deployment posture. |
| Air Force Reserve | air-force-reserve | Air Force Reserve identifies the federal reserve component of the United States Air Force. | Controlled force-component code 'air-force-reserve' in ontology Dimension 8. It classifies Regular, Reserve, or Guard affiliation independently of service, mobilization, and deployment posture. |
| Coast Guard Reserve | coast-guard-reserve | Coast Guard Reserve identifies the reserve component of the United States Coast Guard. | Controlled force-component code 'coast-guard-reserve' in ontology Dimension 8. It classifies Regular, Reserve, or Guard affiliation independently of service, mobilization, and deployment posture. |
| National Guard | national-guard | National Guard identifies a Guard component when the evidence supports Guard affiliation but a more specific Army or Air Guard classification is not appropriate. | Controlled force-component code 'national-guard' in ontology Dimension 8. It classifies Regular, Reserve, or Guard affiliation independently of service, mobilization, and deployment posture. |
| Another supported component | another-supported-component | Another supported component is used when authoritative evidence establishes a component not represented by the named Regular, Reserve, or Guard choices. | Controlled catch-all code 'another-supported-component' in ontology Dimension 8. Use requires explicit source support; recurring concepts should receive a separately defined extension rather than accumulating as unexplained catch-all data. |
How the Live Unit Table Uses This Field
The scalar Unit-table column currently contains 63 distinct nonblank expressions. The 20 most frequently used expressions are shown below; these are evidence-derived or legacy contents, not extra controlled options.
| Observed live expression | Live Unit records |
|---|---|
| Regular | 6277 |
| Unresolved | 1270 |
| Reserve | 892 |
| Guard | 336 |
| Joint | 306 |
| Air National Guard | 66 |
| Unresolved historical component | 19 |
| Navy Reserve | 15 |
| Fleet Marine Force | 14 |
| Historical Marine Corps occurrence; component unresolved | 12 |
| Historical regular Marine Corps component unresolved | 10 |
| All | 10 |
| National Guard | 9 |
| Army of the United States | 8 |
| Total Force | 8 |
| Historical source-period component unresolved | 8 |
| Joint / combined | 5 |
| Active | 5 |
| Combined | 5 |
| Historical Fleet Marine Force, Pacific | 5 |
Missing, Unknown, and Conflicting Information
This column cannot be NULL in the Unit table. When the underlying fact is incomplete, the record must use an allowed explicit disposition or a supported evidence-derived statement. Required storage does not mean that every historical fact is known, and it never authorizes a guessed value.
The controlled uncertainty values are deliberately different: Unknown means evidence has not established a value; Unresolved means the question remains open after review; Needs review identifies work still requiring evaluation; Source conflict preserves disagreement among retained sources; and Not applicable means the dimension does not apply to the subject.
Connections to Other Fields
- Armed Service — The branch of the U.S. Armed Forces to which the unit belongs, or whether it is joint.
- Guard Jurisdiction — The state, territory, District of Columbia, or National Guard jurisdiction connected with a Guard unit.
- Administrative Command — The service-side organization responsible for administration, readiness, personnel, training, and support.
- Posture — How the unit is positioned for service—at home, forward, rotating, deployed, mobilized, or expeditionary.
- Unit Deployability — Whether and how the unit can move from its normal location to perform a mission elsewhere.