Ah, I think I see your confusion. Is it true that in the US a reservist must have served full time first?
Here in Australia, that is not the case, in fact I started as a reservist and ended my military career as a regular soldier. Reserve units are drawn from particular geographic areas, however the range of civilian skills each unit has is absolutely astounding! An understrength infantry battalion of say 350 men has 350 sets of well rounded and professional level skills (it's what they do 5 days a week after all).
Now compare that to a regular unit in which 99% of it's members have been military from 17-18 years of age. How many of these are going to have all that useful non-combat skillsets?
Granted the vast majority of reservists aren't up to scratch in a military sense (several individuals immediately spring to mind from my personal experience), but there are definate exeptions. In my own original company I'd say there were at least ten who would stand a decent chance at passing SAS selection given a few weeks of preparation. Bear in mind that at the time the company was at a strength of only 58 men (roughly 53%), so 1 in 6 is a fairly decent proportion.
On the other hand out of that same number there were at least 3 who should NEVER have been trusted with a rifle...
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