ARLINGTON, Va. - The National Guard should work to preserve what is has built over the past nine years, serve its citizens well - both home and abroad - and recognize and conform to the fiscal challenges of the future, the chief of the National Guard Bureau said April 20.
"If we can do those three things ... and get to this promised land and do it for our nation, do it because it's the right thing to do ... then I think we have earned our money," Air Force Gen. Craig R. McKinley told attendees at the FORSCOM Command Readiness Program at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in North Little Rock, Ark.
McKinley outlined the three strategic priorities for the National Guard.
First, he said the Guard must maintain its role as a full-spectrum force.
"There is no doubt that the meaning ... may be different to several different people," he said. "It is this totally integrated, interoperable force, that is equipped well and well led with a sustainable force of young men and women, who are some of the highest talent the nation can bring, to be able to retain them ... and to be able to go anywhere across the full spectrum that this nation needs is what this statement means to me."
Second, he said the Guard must strive to maintain the significant investment in readiness made over the last eight years.
McKinley said Guard units must be trained, equipped and ready for semi-routine deployments.
"That is the value of having a predictable and sustainable deployment schedule," he said. "And that is a very powerful message to send to Soldiers and ... what keeps Soldiers in this business is they can count on the leadership in this room to send them out the door ready, trained and equipped to do that mission, but have a vision of when that is going to occur."
McKinley described the training and equipage as "miraculous ... but probably fungible."
Army Chief of Staff George W. Casey Jr. said equipment cannot be sustained at this level for a long period of time. "So the equipment that we have, we're going to have to take extremely good care of - that is a core competency of the National Guard," McKinley said.
He added that the Guard will have to take its fair share of cuts in future budget years.
McKinley also said the Guard must remain accessible, and he is concerned that the secretary of defense believes the Guard has been overused.
"I contend that the Soldiers that you employ are ready to go. They want to go, and they expect to be used, and if we break that contract we made with these kids, I think they will go out the door in droves and we may never get them back.
"We have to make sure the word 'accessibility' is understood by all."
Finally, McKinley said we must ensure the Guard is prepared to carry out its homeland defense and disaster response missions, "because the (adjutants general) in this room work for people who expect you to be ready to do the home game," he said. "Whatever that is ... we have got to be ready tonight, not tomorrow, not in 72 hours ... we have to go out the minute these disasters occur."
McKinley said Guard units are combat-ready, and "if you can do Iraq and Afghanistan, you can do the flood."
In a recent visit to North Dakota, McKinley said he met Soldiers who know what to do in these homeland missions. "These are fully combat-seasoned kids, and they can do the home game."
McKinley said there is only one thing that scares him: "The rules have changed," he said. "It may not be a natural disaster. It might be a real big event. And that's a piece that we all need to work together on to make sure we can do ... because the American public expects us to be able to do that."
The National Guard has responded to earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, and it will do the same for an earthquake in California. "The destruction and devastating effects will be the same," McKinley said. "We will need everyone in this room running to the sound of that gun, to work together seamlessly, and there will be no problem about who's in charge ... then we can restore the citizenry ... to where they need to be."