Look even if you call up a unit especially an artillery battery it is going to take months to train these guys. Two weeks a year down at Ft Stewart or wherever just doesn't cut it.
I might even see possibly calling them up for a limited foreign deployment but that is not by any means what is going on. Look at what I wrote the current deployed NG's should have roatated out long ago. BTW for the record my unit had a highly domestic defense mission and a city to defend as we would have been the nearest to it. The city was and still is on the top 5 of first probable hits due to defense assets located in the region. Most of the NG units that were the back ups to defend it are in fact now in Iraq.
The poor planning from 1989 -present is what has created this problem. I'd rather see more defense dollars go into maintaining an active duty ready to deploy without a 6 month work up force than each and every time some third world swamp hole acts up calling up a sizable portion of our National Guards to send there. Some units BTW are on third tours.
Just what do you think NG's do anyway? Sit around at the armory on weekends polishing the brass? In my neck of the woods they are used for search and rescue of both military and civilians from events from lost in the mountains - flooding- yes even severe snow storms.
The Guards especially the Army Guards need to be more under the control of the state governors as the NG's are also a part of many states Civil Defense and Emergency Management Systems. This has been a long standing tradion of usage as well. In the late 60's I saw about every aviable unit in my area searching for a young kid in a National Park. When things like that happen there are not by any means enough civilians trained nor equiped to do a massive and expidited search and rescue effort.
The guards go far beyond units used to operate and maintain planes and tanks that is but a portion of it. WE technically were a combat unit but most all our gear except the 155 howitizer was usable on domestic emergency missions.
This would also de-federalize many emergency reponses as again the governors could activate the troops. Now you tell me down in LA, Mississippi, and Texas, which would you raher see? State troops answerable to the governor of their state assisting in the efforts or active duty units? Personally I'd like to see DHS shut down and FEMA limited in response. Let the states do the job via mutual aid agreements among communities, towns, and even between states. But taking the equipment out of country does no one any good. Think about it we went from a surplus of equipment to troops in Iraq scrounging even for armour. Somebody didn't know where to stop the cuts.
Most Army NG equipment is at least second and third generation equipment with well over half of it's use life behind it. Not really what you want going to the front line especially in places where such needed items as parts may be days out back in the states to be taken off another surplus vehicle. IOW it is usually surplus given to the states. There are exceptions especially in the Air Guards.
If as you say "the air defense portion of our Homeland Security effort is almost exclusively ANG" then we do have a serious problem now don't we? I'm not knocking the Air Guard but having been on a combat ship with full alert capabilities I know the difference in both training and readiness. Alert means pilot suited on site nearby, plane fueled, weapons loaded, and support crew standing by for it. It can go up in a very few minutes to intercept. You tell then if the Air Guard is almost exclusively ANG would that or would that not greatly effect response times in event of wide scale atack?
Effective Homeland defense air power wise is having active duty patrols up in the skies 24/7/365 and should as well have some Flag Officers up in the sky also. Last I heard they still aren't any 0-7's aloft on actual patrol 24-7. We got caught with our guard down once due to a relaxed domestic defense posture.
I know what the National Guard is I also understand that realistically it would likely be easier to train green recruits to a branch service for war time deployment than try and re-train prior service vets some of which are grandfathers who have had no combat experience.
Again here we are not talking about such emergencies as a World War and certainly not third time deployed units in a war with a third world nation.
It's not only dangerous for the NG's it is for the actives they serve with as well when deployed. I would guess if someone took you down to a ships machinery room you would be shall we say culture shocked? I could probably train a green recruit to learn it faster. I left my unit after my obligation was up. It was so kaotic that first day on the range during a fire mission we had a short round fall in a troop zone and were promptly thrown off the range. I wasn't on the gun crew I just drove the ammo truck. But then again to do our actual primary domestic defense mission we likely would have used our M-16's and 50 calibers & not the howitzers anyway.