CAMP PHOENIX, Afghanistan. - The National Guard's noncommissioned officers should be proud of the leadership they provide both inside and outside the wire in the nation's combat zones, said the National Guard Bureau's senior enlisted leader here during a recent town hall meeting.
Command Sgt. Maj. David Ray Hudson recently returned from Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait where he lauded the work of Citizen-Soldiers and -Airmen deployed in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
"We have E-4s and E-5s running operations outside the wire in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as in Djibouti and Kosovo, so never forget to be proud of who you are and what you have done," he told Guardmembers of Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix March 2 on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan.
Hudson visited the countries with the Gen. Craig R. McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bureau, from Feb. 28 to March 4.
Some 60,000 National Guard forces are currently serving in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
To reach the Guardmembers, Hudson and McKinley traveled in military vehicles through a sand storm outside Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait, in the cargo bay of a C-17 Globemaster and a C-130 Hercules over Iraq, and on UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters through Afghanistan's mountain valleys.
As the Guard's senior enlisted leader, Hudson is responsible for advising McKinley on the enlisted affairs of the approximately 460,000 Soldiers and Airmen in the Army and Air National Guard.
Hudson said the overseas trips allowed him to personally hear the concerns of those deployed.
In their dozens of formal briefings, town hall meetings and tours, Hudson and McKinley opened the discussions to hear "anything on Guardmembers' minds."
"Our men and women are concerned about their future and where they will be a year from now ... two years and three years from now," said Hudson at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan. "But they are also very proud of what they are doing here, and they will move on to do whatever their country requires of them."
Whereever he went, Hudson quizzed the Soldiers and Airmen on National Guard history, often lightening up moments with a joke and coining outstanding performers with a hand shake and a "job well done."
"This is the Year of the NCO, and we have a lot of great NCOs here and those who are going to be NCOs," he said.