Army National Guard Leader Development Program

Enhance and support the State's and Territories' capability to develop Army National Guard leader's knowledge, skills, competencies, attributes, and behaviors to produce agile and adaptive leaders at echelon, who are able to operate and succeed in complex and dynamic environments. By Creating and providing leader development resources, opportunities, and content in the experiential and self-development realms of professional development, which deliver broadening experience or increased technical and conceptual competency in order to enable Leader Development across the 54 States and Territories.

Holistic Health & Fitness

H2F is a capabilities-based, task and environment focused, Human Performance Optimization (HPO) program. HQDA EXORD 149-19 directs the Total Army to implement the H2F System. For the Active Component (AC), H2F provides Soldiers direct access to specialized medical and mental health care providers, athletic trainers, and strength coaches at the brigade level. The ARNG model will not mirror the AC model, while still accomplishing the desired end state of improving physical fitness, injury avoidance and recovery, nutritional health, and mental/spiritual resilience.

The ARNG achieves H2F Systems goals of improving Soldier readiness and lethality, optimizing physical/non-physical performance, reducing injury rates, improving rehabilitation after injury, and increasing overall effectiveness through a Directorate enabled and State/Territory led approach which accounts for ARNG unique requirements, opportunities, constraints. The ARNG will accomplish this through a blend of material solutions, subject matter expertise, federal and state resources, and health care professionals.

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Video by Capt. Jennifer French
Reel: 173rd Airborne Brigade, NATO Allies Test Drone Blood Resupply During Swift Response 2025 in Lithuania
173rd Airborne Brigade
May 15, 2025 | 0:23
U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, alongside multinational medical teams, integrated drone-based blood resupply during the multinational Hospital Exercise (HOSPEX) as part of Swift Response 2025 on May 15.

The exercise marked a first for the brigade, using the TRV-150 drone to deliver simulated blood to field care locations. The goal: enhance survivability and speed in austere, contested environments where traditional medical resupply is high-risk.

“We want to buy time,” said Maj. David Hourani, surgeon for the 173rd Airborne Brigade. “The thing that buys the most time for us is blood. So here, we’ve been using simulated blood to test methods of resupply to get blood as far forward as possible to sustain life for as long as possible and make death wait just a little bit longer.”

HOSPEX validated forward medical operations from Role 3 to Role 1, including tactical medical evacuation and damage control surgery.

U.S. participants included the 173rd Airborne Brigade, 160th Forward Resuscitative Surgical Detachment, 519th Field Hospital, 68th Theater Medical Command, and the 7384th Blood Detachment.

NATO Role 2 Enhanced medical teams and Lithuanian Armed Forces medics also conducted joint trauma lanes and mass casualty drills, building interoperability and strengthening combat medical readiness across the Alliance.

As the U.S. Army’s Contingency Response Force in Europe, the 173rd Airborne Brigade maintains a forward presence in Italy and Germany, ready to deploy rapidly across the U.S. European, African, and Central Command areas of responsibility. Regular training with NATO allies and partners ensures readiness and reinforces collective defense.

Recording(s) "Seismic feat. boda" by Judah Earl (2:08)
Subscription Name U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade
Description Retroactive licensing for Subscription 153004

(U.S. Army video by Capt. Jennifer French)
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The ARNG will approach H2F as a three phased operation, including defining requirements, experimentation, and implementation. The ARNG H2F implementation strategy is not a universal “one size fits all” approach, States and Territories are afforded the flexibility to experiment through the planning process. FY21 is a planning year for States/Territories to establish those requirements; ARNG requirements will be determined through collaborative, scientific, evidence based research and experimentation. States/Territories conduct market research, small scale pilots, and analysis IOT determine their specific requirements for H2F implementation. Concurrently, ARNG G3 Training Division (TR) will institute a multi-functional working group of industry experts, collegiate human performance centers, and Army professionals to enable collaboration and requirements development. This targeted and individualized approach ensures the collective ARNG requirement possesses relevance, scalability, ease of implementation, effectiveness, and efficiency across the force. The ARNG will report the requirement findings to the Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA) NLT 30 SEP 2021.

 

Application Information

Contact: ngbh2fstaff@army.mil
OIC: LTC William Palmer
NCOIC: MSG David Brooks