The Army Reserve has about 200,000 soldiers, nearly 52,000 of them on active duty for the war on terrorism, mainly in Iraq. They provide combat support, medical care, transportation, legal services and other support. About 50 have died so far in the Iraq war.

In the Dec. 20 memo to Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, Helmly cited the strains of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan along with "restrictive" and "dysfunctional" personnel policies imposed by Army and Pentagon officials that "are eroding daily our ability to reconstitute into an effective operational force."

"The Army Reserve is additionally in grave danger of being unable to meet other operational requirements," including those in classified contingency plans for other potential wars or national emergencies, "and is rapidly degenerating into a 'broken' force," Helmly wrote.

The burdens that Iraq places on the Army Reserve, a force of part-time soldiers who hold combat support jobs as engineers, medics, military police and truck drivers, among others, is but one part of Helmly's troubles. He also said he had been frustrated in his efforts to overturn at least five personnel policies.

In one instance, Helmly wrote in his memo that he had about 16,400 soldiers in the Army Reserve who were not meeting the terms of their contracts but were being paid about $46 million in health and other benefits. The general said he wanted the Army secretary to use his statutory authority to call these soldiers to active duty. When that action was not taken, Helmly unsuccessfully requested authority to discharge the soldiers, who are deemed "nonparticipants."

Helmly said in an interview he didn't know who had rejected his advice or why, only that he had sent it up Army "channels."

Another policy Helmly has grappled with involves the Individual Ready Reserve, a pool of 115,000 soldiers who are rarely used and do not train with or belong to a unit. Last year, Helmly began shifting some of these soldiers to designated units in what is known as the selected reserve for possible deployment overseas. After he had shifted 2,000 of these soldiers, he was ordered to stop by Assistant Army Secretary Reginald Brown.

Helmly said he believed more senior defense officials were at the center of that decision, after some soldiers complained to members of Congress. "I believe there was political pressure brought to bear," he said.

He also criticized the practice of offering Reserve soldiers an extra $1, 000 a month if they volunteer to be mobilized a second time. This confuses "volunteers" with "mercenaries," he said.

Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, a senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday it was "deeply disturbing" that the head of the Army Reserve feared his force was reaching the breaking point from the the strains of overseas deployments and outdated personnel policies.

"By consistently underestimating the number of troops necessary for the successful occupation of Iraq, the administration has placed a tremendous burden on the Army Reserve and created this crisis," Reed said.

Rick Stark, a retired Army colonel and analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank that's examining the role of part-time soldiers, said Helmly was "seeking to manage the force more expertly."

"He's a straight shooter," Stark said. "He has very strong opinions about how to transform the Army Reserve."

Stark agreed that more soldiers from the Individual Ready Reserve should be shifted to units that could be sent to Iraq and elsewhere. Such action should extend to the other branches of the armed services as well, Stark said, noting that only about one-fourth of the 1.1 million reservists in the military were in the ready reserve.

"Should they only be looking at the Army?" he asked.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.