Most of the post-mob training for the NG is the same training AC units get before they deploy. An extra component for the NG is all the new equipment they have never seen before. Another time waster is that the Army has, until recently, refused to certify NG unit’s readiness and training levels so that each unit has to start out at step one post-mob, even if the unit has been training at and passing external evaluations at a higher level for years.
Personnel cost are in the military, as in the civilian world, is a, if not the, major component of cost of maintaining a unit. The problem is that congress and DOD refused to equip NG units at the same level as AC units. Yes they saved a lot of money, then not now.
As to performance in the field, show me a report where NG unit’s performance was markedly inferior to AC units. Even Michael Yon had good thing to say about the guard in Iraq.
N.B.: we count Brigades now, not Divisions.
In our divisional AO we had the highest rate of finding IEDs before they were triggered-more than 60%. In some ways I think NG units might be better for occupation duty because we have troops who are a little older and more mature than the active duty units and some of our civilian experiences can be useful in helping the occupied nation rebuild.