WASHINGTON - The National Guard has made a "gigantic contribution" in a seamless Total Force since 2001, the vice president told Guard leaders Monday.
"This ain't your father's National Guard," Joe Biden said during a reception for the adjutants general of the 50 states and four territories at his official residence here. "This is a very, very different deal.
"General Patton used the phrase that pressure makes diamonds. A lot of your troops have been under an awful lot of pressure. They have met the ultimate definition of what it means to be a Citizen-Soldier."
Biden said that during overseas travel that has included 17 visits to Iraq and during conversations with combatant commanders, he has been impressed by how Guardmembers synchronize with active duty and reserve forces in a joint environment.
"It's amazing how just absolutely seamless the fit is," he said. "It is a seamless web. ... I don't think anybody expected that it would work as well."
Guardmembers face unique challenges, Biden said.
"Every warrior over there is making sacrifices," he said. "But the difference is that folks who live on bases ... everybody knows what's going on, everybody knows the sacrifice that's being made. But if you live in the middle of a big neighborhood, and you're the only one in the Guard, and your husband or wife is deployed ... there's no one to go next door to and pour your heart out to, no one to sit down with and commiserate how hard it is."
The Biden's oldest son, Capt. Beau Biden, who is a member of the Delaware Army National Guard, recently returned from a deployment to Iraq.
"You are family, and we are a National Guard family," Dr. Jill Biden said. "My heart is with the National Guard."
"It really is ... like family," Vice President Biden said. "The fact of the matter is that when you have a husband or wife or son or daughter or mother or father in the Guard, you get a better sense of what I knew all these years. I knew it. I knew what you do. I knew the role the Guard plays, but it's not until you have somebody who's in and deployed that you fully appreciate it.
"The public doesn't really understand it. They appreciate it, but they don't fully understand it. They don't understand that [Guardmembers have] day jobs, and yet they're doing everything anybody has ever asked of any warrior."
Noting that 404,000 National Guardmembers have been deployed since 2001 and more than 600 "fallen angels" have paid the ultimate price, with others among the ranks of the wounded, the vice president said, "It just startles me watching these kids saddle up every day, day in and day out."
He told the adjutants general, "I'm awed by what you've been able to accomplish, especially with the rotations that you've had and the operational tempo. The Guard and Reserve have made a gigantic contribution."