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National Guard Faces New Challenges, Chief Says
(September 20, 2009) |
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Air Force Gen. Craig R. McKinley addresses an
audience at the 131st National Guard Association
of the United States General Conference in
Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 11, 2009. |
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NASHVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 14, 2009
The National Guard proved
its relevance, value and accessibility after the manmade disaster of Sept. 11,
2001, and after the natural disaster named Hurricane Katrina that hit almost
four years later, the Guard's senior officer said.
“These last eight years have been a testimonial to your service, to your
patriotism, to the respect that the nation has for what the National Guard can
contribute,” Air Force Gen. Craig R. McKinley told the audience Sept. 11 at the
131st National Guard Association of the United States General Conference here.
Speaking on the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks, the 26th chief of
the National Guard Bureau recalled, “I was in the Pentagon. I watched Secretary
of Defense [Donald] Rumsfeld go out ... and help people. ... A lot of Guardsmen did
the same thing.” |
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McKinley said the Air National Guard was flying patrols over
the Pentagon within minutes, and other Guardsmen around the country vowed to
never let another attack happen on their watch again. “That's what I go to sleep
with at night,” he said.
McKinley said the National Guard now must rise to a smorgasbord of new
challenges he outlined for the more than 4,000 active and retired Guard members
and their guests attending the conference, including military and political
leaders from each of the 54 states and territories and the District of Columbia.
And with economic challenges come tighter budgets.
“The budget will be a No. 1 issue” for Defense Department leaders, McKinley
predicted. “We're going to go through a period of time of contracting resources.
... We're also going to be involved in an era of persistent conflict. [Army Chief
of Staff] Gen. [George] Casey thinks we'll have between 10 and 15 brigades
constantly deployed for the next 10 to 15 years. So how do you balance it out --
era of persistent conflict and beginning an era of dwindling resources?
“Every chief and every director ... and every adjutant general ... has had to play
their part in how you balance the risk associated with resourcing and being
prepared to do your mission at home and your mission abroad,” he said.
McKinley made a pledge on behalf of the National Guard Bureau and its
directorates: “We ... will do everything we can to balance risk and make sure we
get the most that we can for the National Guard that has served so well,” he
said. “We can't let [the Guard] slide back as we did after World War II.”
But this, too, will be a challenge. The National Guard has relied on a cascade
of equipment that was purchased new for the active components, then passed on to
a Guard that was famous for wringing extraordinary life from used equipment.
“In many cases, the cascading equipment that served this great Guard for 60
years following World War II ... is no more,” McKinley said. “We can build new. We
can put good money against maintaining old equipment, or we can wait for the
concurrent and proportional status.”
McKinley was referring to the emerging concept that the National Guard will
receive new equipment concurrently and proportionally with the active
components.
“We need to have a strategy for both the Air and the Army National Guard that
continues to keep faith with the soldiers and the airmen who have stuck with us
through eight years of persistent conflict, and who ... will stay with us for the
next decade if we do our job right,” McKinley said.
McKinley stressed the importance of mentors for soldiers and airmen, listing his
own -- many of whom were present, including former chiefs of the National Guard
Bureau and directors of both components. “You have to go out and find mentors,”
McKinley said. “You can't wait for mentors to come to you.”
Those leaders were responsible for the birth of some of the National Guard's
most successful and enduring programs, he noted, such as the State Partnership
Program, Counterdrug and Youth ChalleNGe.
And the Guard's agribusiness development teams now at work in Afghanistan seem
destined to emulate those successes. Recently, he said, 355 Arkansas Guard
members volunteered for an agribusiness team that required 58 members.
“It's not about ‘Whose gotta go?'” McKinley said. “It's they're fighting to go.
... These agribusiness development teams may be the turning point to bring ...
Afghanistan around and bring it to a point where we can actually see progress.”
The nation and the Guard rose to the challenge of 9/11, McKinley said.
“We can be a better country because of this,” he said. “We grieve for the
families who lost members because of 9/11, but we are a better nation and we are
a kinder nation, and we've liberated a country from a despotic dictator, and
we're trying to help a country turn itself around and come from the 15th century
into a new world order.
“The 21st century will be tough for all of us, but the National Guard is
resilient,” he continued. “It will take the challenge, it will do its job, it
will be there when its nation needs it, and I can't thank you all enough for the
jobs you do, for the sacrifices you make and for the commitment you have to your
states and to this nation.”
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Article and photo by Army SSgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau public affairs office
Special to American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2009
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