Army 1st Lt. Adam Rix of the California National Guard has seen his fellow soldiers deal with fighting the war on terrorism and Mother Nature in the same year.
“It’s tough the families and soldiers, going from deployment to wildfires,” said Rix, who joined thousands of other soldiers and airmen on Sunday at the 130th Annual National Guard Association’s conference, held this year in Baltimore. “But that’s what it means today to be in the guard.”
Making life easier for the so-called “citizen soldiers” was a major theme at the conference, where military leaders, Republican presidential candidate John McCain and National Guard officials pledged to increase funding, manpower and equipment.
The guard’s role significantly has changed since the start of the global war on terrorism in 2001, as it has provided more than 350,000 soldiers and airmen to the effort.
“If we can’t rely on the current levels of the National Guard, we will need more from our active forces,” said Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey Jr., who addressed the guardsmen at the Baltimore Convention Center on Sunday. “We couldn’t do what we do today without the guard and the reserves.”
In order to keep those levels up, the guard is going to need more personnel, money and equipment, officials said.
“In the 23 years I’ve been in the National Guard, we were always seeing those dollars shrinking, but it’s getting better now,” said Lt. Col. Chris Zielke of the Kansas National Guard.
And the guardsmen want more benefits, as they do not get the same level of treatment and health benefits for non-combat injuries that full-time soldiers receive.
“What we need to do take care of soldiers and airmen first,” said Brig. Gen. Alberto Jimenez, commander of the Maryland Army National Guard. “And then worry about the bureaucratic mechanisms.”
The Department of Defense recently elevated the head of the National Guard Bureau to a four-star general position, the highest ever for a guard member, which guardsmen said gives them better recognition in the military.
One remedy to make serving easier for guardsmen is to have units do more of their pre-deployment training in their home states to reduce time away from family, officials said.
“Deployments are hard enough on families and employers,” said Maj. Alex Shaw of the D.C. National Guard, who served a year-long deployment in Iraq in 2006.
“Anything we can do to make their lives easier,” he said, “will end up doing to the same for those of us who serve.”
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