HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. - Army Gen. David R. Rodriguez, Commanding General, United States Army Forces Command, conducted a Northeast Regional Adjutant General Conference here, March 8.
FORSCOM is the largest United States Army command and the preeminent provider of expeditionary, campaign-capable land forces to combatant commanders. Headquartered at Fort Bragg, Georgia, FORSCOM consists of more than 820,000 active Army, Army Reserve and Army National Guard Soldiers.
Army Maj. Gen. Joseph C. Carter, the adjutant general of the Massachusetts National Guard, hosted the conference as the adjutants general from Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and New York, all attended.
The purpose of the conference was to open dialogue with each Northeast region National Guard adjutant general regarding information about Army/FORSCOM initiatives that involve the Army National Guard and gain an understanding of issues that impact training and readiness.
"The National Guard contribution to our national security is staggering...it's incredible," Rodriguez said. "My role as the FORSCOM commander is to leverage our capacity and do the best we can to provide for the collective security of our nation."
Rodriguez has now completed three Regional Adjutant General Conferences across the country to obtain critical feedback from each state.
"We provide the latest update at the FORSCOM level and the [adjutants general] then talk through their issues and concerns, so together we can come up with a better plan on how to effectively execute the national security strategy in the future," Rodriguez said.
Also in attendance was Army Lt. Gen. Mick Bednarek, First Army commanding general. First Army advises, assists and trains Reserve component units during pre-mobilization periods and conducts mobilization, training support, readiness validation and deployment of alerted forces in accordance with Department of the Army and FORSCOM directives.
"First Army's role for the Northeast region has become more important for the future than it has been in the past," he said. "The Northeast region has always been special due to a combination of geographic factors of Camp Edwards and Ethan Allen.
"We have to be smarter as we train for collective tasks for the long term to preserve the readiness of our National Guard formations in the future," Bednarek said.
He also stated that sustaining the level of readiness we have had over the past decade becomes more important than ever.
"These conferences are always important as we highlight and identify those challenges that we all collectively have for every state in this region and across the country to preserve the readiness going forward," Bednarek said.