ST. LOUIS - Because it's in every community in the nation, the National Guard is best suited to keep the American people connected with the armed forces, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here Monday.
"This is something we have to do better: To make sure that the military needs of our country are met and that the people of America understand what the United States military is all about," Adm. Michael Mullen said. "There is no better group in the country than the Guard and Reserves to do exactly that."
Mullen told attendees at the largest National Guard Bureau Joint Family Program Volunteer Workshop and Youth Symposium in National Guard history that family readiness is the key to military readiness.
"It is an incredibly important conference dedicated to an incredibly important cause," Mullen told the audience from all 54 states and territories, including many unpaid volunteers. "I put family support on an equal plain with individual and unit performance and sacrifice and service, because we cannot do it without you."
Afterwards, Mullen was enthusiastic about the quality of questions he got from attendees and about the work being done.
"There is so much information in this ballroom today," he said in an American Forces Press Service interview. "If I could tap that information and feed it into the programs and the policy changes I'd be a very happy guy, and I know I could make some really positive changes."
Mullen and LTG H Steven Blum, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, said Department of Defense and National Guard leaders were, in fact, paying close attention to the work being done here at the three-day St. Louis event.
"The chairman being here is hugely important," Blum said, "because he recognizes that it is the National Guard and Reserves that reach into every ZIP code in this nation. If you really want to reach into every ZIP code and sample are we caring about our veterans, are we caring for our currently serving servicemembers, are we caring for their families, this will give you the litmus test of that. This is his opportunity to test the pulse and take the vital signs of the volunteer force."
Earlier, Mullen thanked attendees for their service, urged them to recruit even more volunteers to avoid burn-out during long wars and said family programs must continue to evolve.
He said the nation needs to come together to support wounded warriors and the families of those killed in action for the rest of their lives and that this vital task cannot be left to one or two government agencies.
We as a nation owe them a debt of gratitude to be actively repaid to make sure that they are taken care of for the rest of their lives," he said. "In the end, it is America that can do this. It's not [the Department of Defense] and it's not the [Department of Veterans Affairs] We've got to do this all together.
"There is a sea of good will in this country that would reach out and take care of these families. What I don't have yet are the levers to connect that sea of good will that is in communities all over this country to individuals who are in need."
Innovation is needed to improve family support, Mullen said, citing as one example an Israeli model for caring for wounded warriors and the families of the fallen.
Mullen asked the Israeli army chief of staff how that country provides continued support. The chief of staff reached into his billfold and pulled out a list of a dozen names of families of wounded and fallen members of the Israeli Defense Forces that the minister personally stays in touch with for the rest of his life.
"When a commander takes over a unit in the Israeli Defense Forces, one of the last things they sign for is accountability and responsibility for every family and every member who has been wounded or fallen since that unit stood up 60 years ago," Mullen explained. "And then, when inspectors come around to inspect your unit, that gets inspected."
While not arguing for the same approach in the United States, Mullen said, "It's not a bad model. There are other ways to connect with those who sacrificed so much than the way we are doing it."
Introducing Mullen, Blum said that family support enables America to maintain an all-volunteer force. And he cited as an example of the importance of the National Guard Mullen's home state, California, where the only active duty Army base is in the Mojave Desert, away from population centers.
"When California sees the Army, the only way they see it day-to-day is to see the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve," Blum said. "If we're going to have a volunteer force where mothers and fathers will allow or encourage their sons and daughters to be part of a volunteer military, we better stay connected to the American people, and let me tell you something: When you call out the Guard, you call out America, and when you call out the Guard, you call out the family readiness piece, because if that's not there, the Soldiers won't be there."
The National Guard connection with the nation maintained by a Guard presence in every ZIP code has become more important because of changes in the active duty force, Blum said.
"As the active force has shrunken in size and tried to get more efficient and more economical, they have moved into larger-concentrated and smaller numbers of places and bases around our nation," Blum explained. "Lots of states that used to have military installations do not have [now]. There's no Air base, there's no Navy base, there's no Marine base, there's no Army base."
Families themselves also are changing, the 17th chairman of the Joint Chiefs said.
"Questions about what is the family of the future are out there," Mullen said.
Among examples Mullen has encountered worldwide: A young Soldier in Germany who wonders whether her best friend can be a dependant in the eyes of the military. Foreign widows in Italy whose American husbands have died serving in Afghanistan and who the chairman wonders how we can help. Single parents whose children are cared for by non relatives when they are deployed, non relatives who cannot obtain identification cards to escort those military children onto military bases.
"There is no one that knows better how to take care of families than families," Mullen said, urging military families to provide candid feedback so that leaders can adjust policies to the realities families face.
"We cannot get to where we need to get in the future without your continued leadership," Mullen told the volunteers, thanking them.
Afterwards, both Mullen and Blum assessed family programs as better than they have been in years but in need of further improvement.
"We're at the high-water mark. I don't think it's ever been as good as it is. Is it as good as it needs to be? No. The gap is narrowing every day," Blum said, citing the audience's sophisticated questions on substantive issues without complaints as one measure of change since 2001. "When we first started this war, we were not prepared for full lifecycle support of the Citizen-Soldier and,Airman or Reservist."
That support now exists in the preparatory phase before deployments, during deployments and in the reintegration and reset phase afterwards, Blum said.
"If we could create family programs for the Guard and Reserves that are commensurate with their sacrifice and their commitment in these two wars, not to even speak to all of the other things that they've done to meet the nation's needs, it would be a home run," Mullen said. "We're not there, but we need to. They deserve it. It's critical. We've got to do that."