ARLINGTON, Va. - Despite having 366,000 Soldiers on it's books, the Army National Guard has a readiness issue - some of these Soldiers aren't fully trained, a senior Guard official recently told reporters.
"One of the great dilemmas that we found ourselves in is that with our great success in recruiting, everybody looks at our strength and says we're over strength at 366,000," said Army Lt. Gen. Clyde Vaughn, director of the Army National Guard. "But, when you compare our over strength with the (active) Army "¦ what we've got is two different systems."
In the active component, Soldiers who enlist but won't ship to basic training for several months or longer are placed in a delayed entry program, where they are not counted against end strength numbers, said Vaughn.
In the Army Guard, enlistees are counted against strength numbers as soon as they sign the enlistment papers, even if they won't ship off to training for another year.
The solution to this, said Vaughn, is to create a similar DEP program for the Army Guard.
"We're wedded to a dinosaur of a policy here that really brings recruits into our system and counts them," he said. "This is an old, old artifact that we've got to get out of the way in order to produce readiness."
Under the proposed program, those who enlist in the Army Guard but won't ship to training for more than four months would be placed into an Army Guard delayed entry program.
When the new recruits are within four months of shipping, they would then be assigned to a unit with the Guard's Recruit Sustainment Program (RSP), which prepares new recruits for the rigors of basic training.
After returning from training, they would then be assigned to their unit.
The plan, which Vaughn said may take effect in as little as 90 days, would provide slots for up to 15,000 new recruits in the delayed entry program and 12,500 in the RSP.
Realigning the way individuals are counted against end strength numbers will mean that units have a higher degree of readiness with fully trained Soldiers assigned, said Vaughn.
"Our (current) system does not produce the great kind of readiness, because it's encumbered with folks who aren't yet Soldiers," said Vaughn. "With the (active) Army system, when they swear in, they're going off to training right then and they're basically Soldiers."
This change may also affect the way the Army Guard structures enlistment and reenlistment bonuses.
"Bonuses are an issue for all of us right now," said Vaughn. "Right now, we're in terrible straits with money, and we're being held accountable because of our perceived great end strength."
The Army Guard recently adjusted its enlistment and re-enlistment bonus structure, which reduced the number of Soldiers qualifying for a bonus from 92 percent to 7 percent.
Vaughn said restructuring the way in which Soldiers in the Guard are counted against end-strength comes down to one thing.
"It's all about readiness," he said. "In the end, we're all about producing the highest ready units we can possible produce."