Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, right, listens as Army Maj. Gen. Raymond W. Carpenter, acting director of the Army National Guard, testifiies before a March 24, 2010, hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

WASHINGTON – With 2010 suicide numbers slightly above last year’s and coming off the worst January on record, the Army National Guard is emphasizing resilience, transition programs and the importance of asking for help.

“We are alarmed by the suicide rates we’re seeing inside the Army National Guard,” Army Maj. Gen. Raymond W. Carpenter, the component’s acting director, told the Senate Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on defense in March 24 testimony.

Suicide confounds easy explanation, and deployment might not be the whole answer.

“Almost half of the suicides we’re experiencing are from soldiers who haven’t even deployed,” Carpenter said. “There’s more to this than just the mobilization and deployment piece.”

Senators and National Guard leaders discussed unemployment, financial distress, a challenging economy and reluctance to ask for help as contributing factors.

Army National Guard suicides increased 75 percent in 2009, according to Sen. Daniel Inouye, the committee chair. Carpenter said 24 suicides are currently being investigated for 2010, a slight increase over the 22 who had taken their own lives during the same period in 2009.

“Our deploying soldiers and airmen are facing challenges that none of us on this panel certainly ever did in our military careers,” said Air Force Gen. Craig R. McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bureau. “The stresses, the strains, the financial difficulties, the times we live in, the stress on the family, the fact that we’ve had continuous rotations, obviously have created an environment where many of our young soldiers and airmen struggle to make ends meet.”

The Air National Guard leverages Army National Guard programs and adds its own initiatives, Air Force Lt. Gen. Harry M. Wyatt III, the director of the Air National Guard, said. Those include existing wing family support coordinators and new behavioral health professionals.

“These individuals will be provided to the adjutants general to be placed within their states at his or her direction,” Wyatt explained.

The Guard is making the behavioral health professionals available to all servicemembers. “It’s not just exclusively a service provided to the National Guard,” Wyatt said. “It’s made available to all members of the military.”

The Air Guard also is working to assure programs at active duty bases and posts are available to reservists.

“Some of the returning National Guard members are not honest on their post-deployment health assessments, simply because they don’t want to be delayed going home,” Sen. Patty Murray noted.

Carpenter said the Army is reevaluating those assessments – the first time a study has been done on the Guard and Reserve process in almost three decades.

“The initiative that’s being considered at this point is for the soldier to be honest with whatever emotional or physical problems they might have, be allowed to go home and be with their families, and then allow them to return to get the necessary treatment,” Carpenter said.

“There’s more to this war than just crossing the berm for Baghdad,” he said. “The bottom line … is preparing people for situations that are almost overwhelming. … We’ve got to build a resiliency out there to be able to sustain those tough times and to be able to not look at suicide as a viable option.”

Army National Guard pieces of the solution include the active duty Army’s Soldier Fitness Program and a partnership with the Army Reserve in the Helmets to Hardhats program.

Individual states also have pioneered programs designed to reduce soldier and airman suicides, such as the Kansas National Guard’s Flash Forward and the Michigan National Guard’s Buddy to Buddy program.

– This report originally appeared on www.defense.gov, the official web site of the Department of Defense.

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

WASHINGTON – The National Guard must remain community-based, maintain proficiency, modernize proportionally with the active component and communicate, collaborate and coordinate with other military and government agencies.

Those are some of Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley’s bottom-line messages in the 2011 National Guard Posture Statement released last week.

“The Guard must remain a community-based organization with a clear understanding of its dual role: to serve abroad in support of our national defense; and to serve the governors and people of the states, territories and the District of Columbia to which they belong,” the chief of the National Guard Bureau writes in the statement.

“The National Guard must remain an operational force, indeed a strategic force, and must be resourced as such, so we can assist the Army and Air Force as much as possible,” McKinley writes.

Late winter and early spring is a season of posture statements for the armed forces here in the nation’s capital, where the leaders of military institutions provide congressionally required written testimony outlining the state of their commands and their needs for Congress to consider as it reviews the president’s budget.

In recent weeks, two combatant commands – U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Northern Command – reported to Congress the vital role the National Guard plays in their missions.

“The Air National Guard provides the bulk of [North American Aerospace Defense Command’s] operational force for air sovereignty alert missions,” Air Force Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., the dual-hatted commander of NORAD and NORTHCOM said in his organization’s 2010 posture statement.

The National Guard Bureau, a joint activity of the Department of Defense, also delivers an annual posture statement.

“The NGB, as part of the total operational force, has a greater role and increased responsibility for shaping the discussion and recommendations within [the Defense Department] for issues related to homeland defense and defense support to civilian authorities,” McKinley writes. “The National Guard has always recognized its unique role as America’s first military responder.”

The 2011 statement – the full version is available at http://www.ng.mil/features/ngps/2011_ngps.pdf – recaps the Guard’s 373-year history and no-notice transformation from a strategic reserve to an operational force in an era of persistent conflict overseas and ongoing domestic threats; summarizes how the Guard’s domestic and overseas contributions add value to America; highlights programs such as the Guard’s Agribusiness Development Teams, State Partnership Program, work with at-risk youth, family support, training and Counterdrug operations; and lays out a vision for the years ahead.

The National Guard’s joint staff and the Army and the Air National Guards operate jointly – and the National Guard Bureau is continuously furthering “jointness.”

“To improve efficiency for all involved in domestic operations, the NGB is orchestrating an effort to maximize collaboration with partner organizations like the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” McKinley writes. “By working together with our partners, we will provide a more coordinated response for all catastrophes, natural or manmade.”

The statement also lists challenges facing the Guard, such as equipment modernization, recruiting and retention for specific skills – and the Guard’s aging air fleet.

“The Air National Guard must be concurrently and proportionally recapitalized, particularly in order to avoid the near to mid-term ‘age-out’ of the majority of its fighter force,” McKinley writes.

The posture statement also includes reports from Army Maj. Gen. Raymond W. Carpenter, the acting director of the Army National Guard; Air Force Lt. Gen. Harry M. Wyatt III, the director of the Air National Guard; and Army Maj. Gen. Michael H. Sumrall, the acting director of the National Guard Bureau’s joint staff, as well as a listing of every member of the Army and Air National Guard, who has made the ultimate sacrifice in the attacks of 9/11, Operation Noble Eagle, Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom as of Jan. 1, 2010.

– This report originally appeared on www.ng.mil, the official web site of the National Guard.

"You lead the best men and women the Guard has ever produced," Army Maj. Gen. Frank Grass, director of operations for U.S. Northern Command told National Guard officers attending a domestic operations workshop in National Harbor, Md., on March 23, 2010. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – U.S. Northern Command and its sister command North American Aerospace Defense Command are inextricably linked to the National Guard, NORTHCOM’s operations director said here Tuesday.

“I don’t think you’ll ever see a day where NORAD and NORTHCOM can be separated from the National Guard,” Army Maj. Gen. Frank Grass told National Guard leaders gathered for a weeklong domestic operations workshop. “It behooves us to stay very closely tied with the Guard.

“Starting back in 1636, and going all the way up to [Hurricane] Katrina, the Guard has been involved in every homeland mission. The Guard set the stage for the homeland.”

On Monday, 72,520 Army and Air Guardmembers were serving in federal Title 10 status; 6,082 more were serving in domestic missions like homeland defense air sovereignty alert, Counterdrug or in support of their governors.

“The Guard … is truly outstanding,” Grass said. “You lead the best men and women the Guard has ever produced. The best Citizen-Soldier or -Airmen and women that serve across our land every day are led by the best [noncommissioned officers] and the best senior enlisted in the nation.”

NORTHCOM has recognized the quality of National Guard NCOs: Air Force Command Chief Master Sgt. Allen Usry is the first National Guard NCO to serve as the senior enlisted leader at a combatant command.

NORTHCOM is responsible for homeland defense, sustaining continuous situational awareness and readiness to protect the homeland against a range of symmetric and asymmetric threats in all domains.

Its area of responsibility includes the continental United States, Alaska, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas, French territory off the Canadian coast and three British overseas territories.

NORTHCOM strives to collaborate with the National Guard so that the two share a common operating picture. “We’re getting very good at that,” Grass said. “Developing and building an understanding between capabilities and what the Guard has in the states is critical to us in that partnership. … Most of my job is spent watching what’s going on in the National Guard, in the states.”

NORTHCOM has a unique degree of the jointness sought throughout the Defense Department. A mix of National Guard, Reserve, Coast Guard, active duty component, senior civilians and contractors fill the command’s ranks.

The command partners with Canada and Mexico and with Defense Department, civilian and private agencies – more than 60 organizations.

These relationships paid dividends during the response to Haiti’s earthquake, Grass said.

“The … staff needs to be a mix of active, Guard and Reserve. It is the only place in my military career where you can bring together all components, all services … work together, and learn about this mission in the homeland,” Grass said. “Everybody in this nation … should know about defending the homeland, not just the National Guard.”

National Guard brigadier generals fill slots at NORTHCOM while the command’s officers are away at schools or other temporary assignments.

“I can’t stress the importance of that [enough],” Grass said. “Not just for the Army and Air Guardmembers who come in and serve … but also for our staff to truly get a picture and understanding of what a Guard Soldier or Airmen does from day to day, across the map, both in their civilian job and in their service to the state.”

NORTHCOM also hosts joint task force commander and staff courses heavily attended by National Guard leaders.

And the Guard plays a key role in supporting NORTHCOM’s missions, including significant involvement in Operation Noble Eagle, a post-9/11 initiative to protect U.S. and Canadian airspace that has seen Air National Guard members and Reservists fly more than 80 percent of its more than 55,000 missions.

“There is either an alert or scramble somewhere in the nation every day,” Grass said. “[Where] we used to look outward, now we look outward and inward.”

Colorado and Alaska National Guard units provide ballistic missile defense.

“If we had an incoming ballistic missile to the U.S., we would be prepared to shoot it down,” Grass said. “You can see how … the Guard is connected to our homeland defense mission.”

The Guard also provides much of the ground-based air defense system for the national capital region; it contributed to forces standing by to support the recent Winter Olympics; and it conducts joint exercises and workshops with NORTHCOM.

The National Guard is the first domestic military responder. “NORTHCOM does not get a mission until the governor asks the president for support,” Grass said. “The National Guard is always there under the governors’ control … but when that one catastrophic event that hopefully never happens, you want that catastrophic insurance policy. When that one incident occurs that’s catastrophic, we’re prepared to come and support … the states and the National Guard.”

– This report originally appeared on www.ng.mil, the official web site of the National Guard.

U.S. Sen. Christopher Bond talks with Air Force Lt. Gen. Harry M. Wyatt III, director of the Air National Guard, before a March 24, 2010, hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense at which Wyatt testified in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

WASHINGTON — National Guard leaders were on Capitol Hill Wednesday with a message from Guardsmen: we want to remain an operational reserve.

“The National Guard has repeatedly proven itself to be a ready, accessible force,” Air Force Gen. Craig R. McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Defense.

“We have validated the Total Force concept by showing that the men and women in our formations are ready to answer the call to be mobilized to deploy overseas, return home and then become prepared to do it again and again.”

The Total Force concept includes a seamless integration of the active force, the Guard and the Reserve.

“The Citizen-Soldiers and -Airmen of your National Guard are adding value to America every day,” McKinley said. “Today’s men and women volunteer … fully expecting to be deployed.

“This shift in expectation is a central aspect of the National Guard’s shift to being a fully operational force and no longer merely a strategic reserve. Indeed, the Soldiers and Airmen of your National Guard now serve with that expectation and are proud of it. They want to remain central players in the nation’s defense and would indeed be resistant to any move to return to a role limited to strictly strategic reserve.”

Air Force Lt. Gen. Harry “Bud” Wyatt said the Air National Guard’s priorities for 2011 are modernization; securing the home front and defending the nation and developing Airmen.

“Our nation’s Air National Guard provides a trained, equipped and ready force, accessible and available, that comprises about one third of the total [Air Force] capabilities for less than 7 percent of the total force spending,” he said.

“Many of our folks continue to volunteer at unprecedented rates for worldwide contingencies and to protect our domestic security through air sovereignty alert missions and in responding to natural and manmade disasters,” Wyatt said.

Describing the operational National Guard “a national treasure,” Army Maj. Gen. Raymond Carpenter, the acting director of the Army National Guard, said “the National Guard today is a far cry from the force I joined.”

Facilities and infrastructure are among the Army Guard priorities Carpenter cited to the committee. “(They) are especially important in the homeland mission and supporting readiness for the overseas fight,” he said.

“We have 1,400 readiness centers – armories – that are over 50 years old. The president’s budget includes $873 million for construction for the Army National Guard,” he said. “It is a high-water mark … and something we’d like to see sustained in order for us to do the modernization of armories.”

The aging air fleet took the lion’s share of the more than an hour-long Guard leadership testimony Wednesday.

Guard leaders said a looming aircraft shortfall could diminish the Air Guard’s homeland defense air sovereignty mission.

Eighty percent of the National Guard’s F-16 Fighting Falcon multirole jet fighters – the backbone of the air sovereignty alert force – will begin reaching the end of their service lives in seven years, according to the 2011 National Guard Posture Statement released Wednesday.

Of 18 air sovereignty alert sites nationwide, the Air National Guard operates 16. The sites have the aging F-16s, often built before their National Guard pilots were born.

The Air Force is scheduled to field a new F-35 Lightning stealth multirole fighter, but there is a gap between the anticipated end of the Fighting Falcons’ service life and when the Air Guard could expect to start receiving any allotment of Lightnings.

“It is a primary concern of mine to make sure that we address a plan to make sure that we have the capability in the near-term, as we wait for the fielding of the F-35,” Wyatt told the subcommittee.

The Air National Guard has 88 flying units. “We have three units that – without any kind of intervention – probably will not have equipment by the end of [the 2012 fiscal year], which is a big concern,” McKinley said.

But there are no legacy aircraft in the pipeline to fill this gap.

One solution to alleviate the pressure: The Air Force has said the Air National Guard can re-evaluate the amount of flying time left on its aging F-15 Eagle tactical fighter and F-16 fleet, McKinley said. That would mean some aircraft could potentially see longer service lives than previously expected.

The National Guard is renowned for squeezing the most from aging equipment, as it did from the 59-year-old M35 “deuce and a half” cargo trucks that Carpenter told the subcommittee are finally being phased out this year, and from the 40-year-old UH-1 Huey helicopters the Guard flew until 2009.

The Air Force also foresees ramping up F-35 production from 48 to 80 per year. “That’s a significant change,” McKinley said.

Failing longer service lives or faster F-35 fielding, units could receive alternative missions. “The last thing that I want to see is a wing of aircraft leave and leave 1,200 people at a location with nothing to do,” McKinley said. “That’s just not in the interests of the American citizen.”

– This report originally appeared on www.ng.mil, the official web site of the National Guard.

Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, stresses domestic readiness, squeezing the most from resources and operating jointly at the National Guard's domestic operations conference at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., on March 22, 2010. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The National Guard must squeeze the most from limited resources; structure its manpower and equipment so that it can give the most effective domestic response possible; and operate jointly, the chief of the National Guard Bureau said Monday.

Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley challenged National Guard leaders gathered here for a week long domestic operations workshop to prepare for the worst-case scenario — natural or manmade disasters in the homeland — right now.

“We will be judged by how well we handle the domestic operation,” McKinley said. “As well as we’re performing in our mission overseas, [we] will be judged by how well we’re performing here at home.”

More than eight years of the heightened domestic and overseas operational tempo that followed the manmade disaster of Sept. 11, 2001, have transformed the National Guard from a strategic reserve to an operational force.

McKinley’s message: The National Guard cannot let up.

“We can do better,” he said. “We’ve got [Guardmembers] … at the highest state of readiness that they’ve ever had, but we’ve got to give them the tools to succeed,” he said.

The National Guard has been a full-spectrum force throughout its 373-year history, he said, and it must balance preparation for domestic operations with the demands of the ongoing warfight.

“This is the time to think about it,” he said, “to get your questions answered, to come up with a strategy, to work – Air, Army and Joint [Staff] together – collaboratively, because maybe in a month we won’t have any time like this.”

Floods, earthquakes, hurricanes or manmade catastrophes can strike at any time with no notice, he reminded Guard leaders from the 54 states and territories and the District of Columbia.

Once disaster strikes, “We won’t have time to plan, to organize, to equip, to train,” McKinley said. “We’re … the force of choice … domestically.”

The Guard must stand always ready, always there despite an era of limited resources, he said. “There is not going to be more money and resources,” he said. “You’re going to be asked to do a lot more with fewer people or at least be doing the same amount with the numbers you’ve got. … We’re going to have to put the resources where they’re most needed and most vitally used.”

One part of making sure that happens is staying focused on increasing jointness. Following the Sept. 11 attacks, the National Guard established joint state headquarters in every state and territory and the District of Columbia.

Like the rest of the Defense Department, it has increased its joint operations.

“We’ve got to get outside our comfort room and decide that everybody … is one team, wearing Army and Air Force uniforms, but members of the National Guard,” McKinley said, adding that it will take constant communication, collaboration and cooperation.

The National Guard must also zealously protect its most important resource, he said.

In the event of a domestic catastrophe, “if we send our kids into a hot zone and they’re not protected, shame on us,” McKinley said. “We’ve got to train them, we’ve got to give them good leadership.

“You just don’t throw 75,000 people at an emergency without command and control, without authorities and without all the infrastructure that goes with it and make it operate effectively – especially in a hot zone.”

On Sept. 11, 2001, McKinley was at the Pentagon, and he later was one of the military leaders called on to testify before a commission examining how the attacks succeeded.

“We weren’t ready,” he said. “It was a failure of imagination. We failed to imagine that anybody would do this. We failed to imagine that anybody would be successful at this. We failed to believe that … anybody could have come up with this idea to do so much damage to this great nation and the world and put us in a situation where eight … years later we are still fighting the same enemy.

“That gets me at the core. Failure of imagination. We better not have [another] one of those.”

He challenged National Guard leaders nationwide to constantly ask what the vulnerabilities are in their areas of responsibility and alert higher authorities about concerns.

Leaders should be asking themselves, “Where’s the next one going to happen? What part of my state, territory or the District [of Columbia] is vulnerable?” McKinley said. They also should be doing a constant self-assessment, asking themselves: Do we have the right equipment, the right training, the right supplies?

He cited the 2009 presidential inauguration, when a record crowd of about two million people gathered in the nation’s capital as about 9,300 National Guard troops joined thousands of servicemembers from all components standing by, as an example of doing domestic operations right.

“If something had happened, natural or manmade, the National Guard would have been ready,” he said. “We are the only organization that’s built and resourced and equipped right now in this nation to do this kind of work.

“We’re it,” he told the Guard leaders. “You’re it.”

– This report originally appeared on www.ng.mil, the official web site of the National Guard.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Harry M. Wyatt III, the director of the Air National Guard, right, briefs the Advisory Panel on Department of Defense Capabilities for support of Civil Authorities After Certain Incidents in Arlington, Va., on March 17, 2010, while Army Maj. Gen. Mike Sumrall, the director of the National Guard Bureau's Joint Staff, left, and Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, listen. A new threat environment means a transformed National Guard should maintain its force following draw downs in Iraq and Afghanistan, McKinley told the panel. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

ARLINGTON, Va. – A new threat environment means a transformed National Guard should maintain its force following drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Guard’s highest-ranking general said here Wednesday.

“The National Guard must remain a full-spectrum force, available to our governors to assist when disaster strikes and available to the president to execute his duties as commander-in-chief,” Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, told the congressionally mandated Advisory Panel on Department of Defense Capabilities for Support of Civil Authorities After Certain Incidents.

The Air National Guard has been at war almost 20 years – since Desert Storm and the no-fly zone enforcement that followed until the Iraq War – while the Army National Guard has fought almost a decade, since the attacks of 9/11. The National Guard has transformed from a strategic reserve to an operational force.

“We have proven we can operate side-by-side with our active component brothers and sisters on the battlefield,” McKinley said, “and, in doing so, have built a National Guard that is better-trained, better-equipped and better-led than at any other time.”

Throughout its 373-year history, the National Guard has typically been put back on the shelf following major conflicts. Training fades, skills atrophy, equipment ages, and readiness recedes.

Not this time, McKinley urged.

“The current threat environment does not allow us to accept this risk,” he said. “Our enemies can strike us here at home. We are unlikely to get advance warning.”

Unlike the Cold War paradigm, we cannot afford time to dust off the Guard, re-equip and spend months in pre-mobilization training, he said.

“We must be prepared, like the Minutemen of our heritage, to immediately make the transition from citizen to Soldier or Airman,” McKinley told the panel. “We must maintain the readiness we have built.”

The advisory panel is assessing how the Defense Department can support civil authorities for chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives incidents in the homeland. It is chaired by retired Adm. Steve Abbot, a former presidential assistant for homeland security and deputy commander of U.S. European Command.

Frank Keating, former governor of Oklahoma who has served as associate U.S. attorney general and assistant treasury secretary, is the vice-chair. Also among the panel’s 13 members are five current or former Guard senior leaders.

To some people, the statutorily established panel, a new Council of Governors and enhancements to the National Guard “seem to reflect a sense to Congress that [the Defense Department] has not adequately planned for or provided resources to respond to catastrophic incidents,” McKinley said.

Not true, he said.

“I want to challenge the assumption that [the Defense Department] is either complacent or takes this mission lightly,” he said.

As a four-star general, McKinley is included in meetings with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other top-level discussions, and meets regularly with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the secretary of defense.

“I can attest that the department’s senior leaders take no issue more seriously than the safety of our citizens here at home,” he said.

The panelists are navigating a labyrinth that requires lessons in constitutional law; the relationships between local, state and federal authorities; the different statuses National Guard members serve under with their unique dual-hatted state and federal missions; and the interplay between institutions, such as U.S. Northern Command, the National Guard Bureau, the Defense Department, state emergency managers, governors and other institutions and individuals.

Today’s armed forces operate jointly, embracing a Total Force concept of seamless integration between active duty, National Guard and Reserve troops. Any Defense Department response would be in support of civilian authorities and elected officials.

Joining McKinley for Wednesday’s testimony were Air Force Lt. Gen. Harry M. Wyatt III, director of the Air National Guard; Army Maj. Gen. Mike Sumrall, the director of the National Guard Bureau’s Joint Staff; and Army Brig. Gen. Tim Kadavy, representing the director of the Army National Guard.

The panel is statutorily required to report its findings to the secretary of defense and the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.

– This report originally appeared on www.ng.mil, the official web site of the National Guard.

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

WASHINGTON – U.S. senators applauded the National Guard’s domestic and overseas contributions at a Thursday morning breakfast here on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Patrick Leahy and Sen. Christopher S. Bond co-hosted the 2010 Senate National Guard Caucus Breakfast, which also included newly elected Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, a current Army Guard lieutenant colonel, who joked that he needs to get a haircut before he attends his monthly drill with the Massachusetts National Guard this weekend.

“The National Guard is a tremendous instrument for smart power,” Bond said.

Smart power refers to the use of both soft and hard power. At the 2009 Senate hearing that confirmed her as secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton said, “We must use what has been called smart power – the full range of tools at our disposal – diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal and cultural – picking the right tool, or combination of tools, for each situation.”

Caucus members heard from Guard officials about the work of National Guard Agribusiness Development Teams in Afghanistan.

The teams combine Guardmembers’ civilian-acquired skills with their military training to help Afghans improve agricultural practices.

“The only way we’re going to defeat the insurgents – the radical extremists who want to destroy us and our way of life – we have not only to provide military force … but we need to bring along the ability to help countries like Afghanistan develop a good economy where young people can get a profitable job and not have to rely on getting $25 from some terrorist to plant an IED,” Bond said. “Smart power is beginning to work.”

If the ADTs represent soft power, Lt. Gen. Harry M. Wyatt III, the director of the Air National Guard, told senators about his pride in the Air National Guard’s contributions to hard power.

The 451st Air Expeditionary Wing at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan is commanded by Air Force Brig. Gen. Guy M. Walsh, a Maryland National Guard member – the first time that the Air National Guard has commanded a wing during combat.

Maj. Gen. Raymond W. Carpenter, the acting director of the Army National Guard, gave senators and their staffs a snapshot of Guard operations within the last month.

The National Guard stood by for a possible tsunami in Hawaii after the Chilean earthquake. Guardmembers continue to help Haitians in the wake of their earthquake, and the Guard is responding to flood threats in North Dakota and Minnesota.

More than 53,400 Guardmembers are currently deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, the Sinai Desert and elsewhere.

Guardmembers are also furthering state partnerships with 63 countries worldwide. They are running counterdrug operations and pressing toward graduating the 100,000th high school dropout to make it through the Youth ChalleNGe Program that offers a second chance at a better life.

“There’s little the National Guard cannot achieve, and we’re so proud of what it does nationwide,” Bond said. When we went “after terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Guard was there. During the response to Hurricane Katrina, the Guard was there. During the floods, earthquakes, fires and other natural disasters, the Guard is always there.”

“You deserve the best,” Leahy said. He urged communities where deployed Guardmembers live to pitch in with yard work, babysitting and other help for families left behind. “If you know a family member of a National Guard member, offer to help,” he said.

“With the families behind the Guardsmen, we can do anything and will do anything,” Brown added.

– This report originally appeared on www.ng.mil, the official web site of the National Guard.

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

ARLINGTON, Va. – National Guard equipment levels are improving nationwide, the commander of U.S. Northern Command told a congressional committee March 11.

Air Force Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr. told the Senate Armed Services Committee that equipage is up to more than 70 percent. “That’s new equipment. The training quality is up. And we’re especially pleased that the equipment related to these homeland support missions is close to 100 percent in most of the states.”

Guard leaders have expressed concern about equipment levels for years.

In 2006, then chief of the National Guard Bureau, Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum sounded a warning. “We are now in a dangerously low resourcing level for missions back here at home, and that must be seriously addressed,” he said.

Last year, in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee, the chiefs of the Army and Air National Guards’ cited improvement.

“The Army has made great progress toward improving equipping levels within the Army National Guard,” said its acting director, Maj. Gen. Raymond W. Carpenter. “In recent years, the Army has made an unprecedented level of investment in Army National Guard equipment.”

Both Carpenter and Lt. Gen. Harry M. Wyatt III, director of the Air National Guard, said more needs to be done to improve equipment critical to both domestic and warfighting missions.

Also last year, Defense officials told the House Armed Services Committee that National Guard equipment will be returned from Iraq to the United States and Guard units can fill shortages with equipment currently in use in Iraq.

Renuart was elaborating on his command’s 2010 posture statement, which he delivered to the committee.

“National Guard and Reserve forces are critical to [NORTHCOM's] ability to carry out our assigned homeland defense and civil support missions,” he said in the posture statement.

NORTHCOM’s headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., has 50 full-time National Guard positions, of which 45 are filled, Renuart said.

An additional 130 positions could be filled, and the command is working closely with the National Guard Bureau, Renuart said.

“We’ve built a closer relationship with the National Guard Bureau itself than we’ve ever had before,” he said.

Accompanying Renuart was Command Chief Master Sgt. Allen Usry – NORTHCOM’s senior enlisted leader –the first National Guard member to fill the position.

A newly hired military assistant for NORAD will come from the Colorado Air National Guard, Renuart also announced.

“Colorado has been particularly supportive,” he said. “We have 25 Colorado Guardsmen, who are part of that full-time support.”

The National Guard bridges the gap between civilians and the all-volunteer force, Colorado Sen. Mark Udall said.

“As powerful and as sophisticated as it is, there’s a tendency for [full-time forces] to become isolated from society,” he said. “The Reserves and the Guard provide … that pipeline … that connection between civilians and those who serve so ably in the military.”

– This report originally appeared on www.ng.mil, the official web site of the National Guard.