National Guard Leaders Say States Should Pay for Services, Need 'Some Skin in the Game'

Newsweek ^ | 12 October 2021 | THOMAS KIKA

[blueplum]

National Guard leaders suggested on Tuesday that state governments should start footing part of the bill for missions.

Major General Laura Yeager, commander of the California National Guard's 40th Infantry Division, spoke about the issue during a panel at a conference for the Association of the U.S. Army. With the cost for National Guard deployments being reimbursed fully, Yeager said that governors have become too reliant on the guard for extended periods, creating too much idle time....

...With troops being held on missions for extended periods, Yeager explained that there were frequently times when they were idle. In addition to preventing the National Guard from deploying these inactive troops to places they might have been needed, these situations also damaged morale.

As a remedy for this predicament, Yeager suggested that states should be liable to pay some portion of the bill for National Guard deployments. With an actual financial obligation, extended missions with considerable idle time ...

[WMarshal]

Since the National Guard is effectively under the federal fascist control the states should just dissolve their National Guard and set up militias as defined under the Constitution. The States shouldn’t be given the out-of-control federal government a goddamned dime.

[Don W]

Seriously, this “leader” said this with her OUTSIDE voice?

She does understand the whole “federal/state”dichotomy, doesn’t she?

Wow, these are the folks in command of the world’s “best” military?

I am honestly afraid for the future of humanity at this point.

Between the plandemic, the fake president, and military leaders not knowing their role, we are in a WORLD of hurt, and it can ONLY get worse.

I thought we in Canada were screwed, but holey moley!

[fini]

I think what she is saying is that when the Guard is activated, it doesn't get used very well. So they "sit around and wait." Since they are citizen soldiers, they are away from their civilian job and while they can't get fired (Well some do, but that is for another discussion.), but they won't get promoted. Additionally, it causes morale problems when you are away from your home and doing nothing. She makes sense, if the state was picking up part of the tab, then maybe there would be pressure to make deployments shorter or more involved. However, the Army has never been very good at quickly deploying for non-scheduled events, so maybe her complaint is about normal inefficiencies in Army deployments.

Now before someone gets their panties in a wad, I was actively involved in deploying Marine Reserve units in OIF from 2001 to 2004. The average time from activation to deployment into theater was three weeks for a Marine Reserve unit. The average time for a Guard unit was six months. I could write a chapter on what the Marine Corps does to make that happen, but in a nutshell it is money to keep units properly trained (tactical evaluations) and ready (all medial shots are up to date), and years of planning ("no-notice" recalls to include loading the Marines on the planes and in some instances loading ships), etc...

[Lumper20]

When in OIF you got full pay as any RA or any regular Marine right? Tell me how many years you have on AD? The TN NG retires with regular pay. Many had/have only 3 years AD. Many work for State Dept. Postal Service and other Fed agencies.

[Svartalfiar]

She’s somewhat right. Yes, with FedGov stepping in and throwing tons of $$ at the States, the States have been trying to spend that money and just wasting it.

There should be a simple dichotomy here: if it’s a State function, the State should pay for it. If it’s a Federal thing, FedGov should be footing the bill.

[Svartalfiar]

I think what she is saying is that when the Guard is activated, it doesn't get used very well. So they "sit around and wait." Since they are citizen soldiers, they are away from their civilian job and while they can't get fired (Well some do, but that is for another discussion.), but they won't get promoted. Additionally, it causes morale problems when you are away from your home and doing nothing.

This. Ever since Harvey, Texas has been calling up some Guardsmen every time there's a cloud hanging in the Gulf. Whether it hits TX or not, whether it turns into an actual hurricane or not. out of 2-3 that I was on, we only drove down to Houston for one of them. Sat for a couple days then went back home.

DC mission, we got stuck trucking gear there for a unit that couldn't take it on their flight. Last minute callup (first called at ~1600 Fri to be there at 06 Sat morning), and then after delivering it, we sat in a hotel in NVA for a week, just waiting for the actual DC unit to be released so we could drive their crap home. Literally doing nothing.

TX winter weather, they called a bunch of us up even though we LIVED IN THE AREA that got hit bad. Several people had families dealing with burst pipes or other, we weren't released to go home for that. And even after the snow was half melted and temps were in the 70s, they kept us OVER AN EXTRA WEEK so we could pose for photos with pallets of water and random city mayors...

Riot duty. While this one was more dependent on the situation on the ground that eventually didn't do much, a whole bunch of us got a week of training and didn't really go anywhere after that.