ARLINGTON, Va. - Living up to its "Always, Ready, Always There" motto, National Guard medical readiness is at an all-time high, said its top medical officer.
"We are at the highest-ever level of Individual Medical Readiness (IMR) due to the remarkable accomplishment by our leaders in the field," said Maj. Gen. Joseph "Kirk" Martin, National Guard surgeon general.
Martin said the Air National Guard readiness posture is at a healthy 82.7% and the Army National Guard stands at 82.1%. National Guard medical readiness numbers, he added, are on par with Defense Department goals.
In December 2012, in order to place even greater emphasis on military medical readiness, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness increased the minimum Total Force medical readiness level to meet or exceed 82%.
For the past two years, senior National Guard Bureau leadership have made a concerted effort, in concert with the 54 states and territories adjutants general (TAGs) to greatly increase the medical readiness posture throughout the National Guard.
Gen. Frank Grass, chief of the National Guard Bureau, was pleased with the TAGs' efforts to eclipse the readiness standard. "Your continued top-down emphasis in this area," he noted in a memo, "will provide a healthy, resilient force capable of meeting our nation's current and future requirements."
Martin said he was proud of the accomplishment and encouraged a sustained commitment to Individual Medical Readiness to meet an 85% medical readiness goal set to implementation in December, 2014. "I am moved by the efforts of our Soldiers and Airmen and I'm fully confident we'll exceed our next milestone," Martin said.
"The National Guard's motto is Always Ready, Always there," Grass said. "We have to be ready all the time. Our two missions, providing federal combat forces and responding to domestic emergencies, demand that we be ready to mobilize at a moment's notice... and that is exactly what we do."