On Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order amending executive order 13223, which was signed and issued by President Bush on September 14th, 2001 after the terrorist attacks in Pennsylvania, New York, and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER 13223 By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and in furtherance of the objectives of Proclamation 7463 of September 14, 2001 (Declaration of National Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks), which declared a national emergency by reason of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in New York and Pennsylvania and against the Pentagon, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States, and in order to provide the Secretary of Defense additional authority to manage personnel requirements in a manner consistent with the authorization provided in Executive Order 13223 of September 14, 2001 (Ordering the Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces to Active Duty and Delegating Certain Authorities to the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Transportation), it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Amendment to Executive Order 13223. Section 1 of Executive Order 13223 is amended by adding at the end: “The authorities available for use during a national emergency under sections 688 and 690 of title 10, United States Code, are also invoked and made available, according to their terms, to the Secretary concerned, subject in the case of the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, to the direction of the Secretary of Defense.” WHAT DOES AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER 13223 MEAN? The executive order that Trump signed today broadens the previous executive order that allows for the recall of those in the Ready Reserve to also include those who have retired from the military. Those affected would include those retired from service in the army, navy, air force, and marines and also includes officers and generals as well. The order delegates the authority to recall those who are in retirement by explicitly naming the secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force as having the power to do so, under the direction of the Secretary of Defense. The order also removes the cap on recalling retired generals and flag officers, 10 U.S. Code § 690 caps the total amount of recalled generals and flag officers to 15 each for the whole military. The new executive order activates the subsections in both statutes which waive their limitations in times of war or national emergency. The specific waiver for this that the President used comes from his application of the original National Emergency declaration in executive order 13223 from the 9/11 attacks to these two sections. President Trump referred to the “calm before the storm” a few weeks ago during a meeting he had with members of the military and the press. Since then, he’s only become more belligerent with North Korea and their government has responded in kind by announcing more nuclear tests and threatening the people of Guam, Japan, and Australia. Could this be a prelude to recalling many more individuals in case of a North Korea strike? The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is now in patrols off of the Korean peninsula. “We anticipate that the Secretary of Defense will delegate the authority to the Secretary of the Air Force to recall up to 1,000 retired pilots for up to three years,” Navy Cdr. Gary Ross, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement.