Summary of a story in DefenseNews.
Last week, the the US Army Chief, Gen Odierno caught the ire of some of our National Guard leaders when he stated that the National Guard is not interchangeable with Active Duty. At an earlier event, he equated the National Guard to second string status on a football team. It all involves the Active component wanting to keep their personnel and equipment at the expense of cutting and limiting the capabilities of the National Guard.
“They [Active Duty] are trained and ready to do things at a higher level because they spend every day focused on that,” Odierno said. “Our National Guard, [which has] done an incredible job in the last 10 years, trains 39 days a year.” -Gen Odierno
“The difference between the National Guard and Reserve and the active component,’ he said, is the active component can practice every single day. The Guard gets to practice 39, 40 days out of the year. So do you want a football team that can do one practice a month and have two weeks spring training versus a force that can practice every single day?” -Gen Odierno
The latest issue involves the aviation assets between the National Guard and Active Duty. This restructure includes taking all AH-64 Apache helicopters our of the National Guard to fill the Active Duty armed aerial scout mission requirements…. What about the National Guard requirements in fulfilling their portion of the “Total Force” Mission? It is interesting that the football analogy was chosen to make his point, with over a half dozen NFL head coaches being fired in the last 30 days….. Karma is a son of a gun.
