WASHINGTON, - The Fiscal Year 2011 budget request meets the critical needs of the Army and Air National Guard, the chief of the National Guard Bureau told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on personnel here May 12.
Air Force Gen. Craig R. McKinley said the budget includes funding for one of the longest running joint programs in the National Guard -- one which employs both Army and Air National Guard capabilities -- the counterdrug program.
“This unique program provides a mechanism under which National Guard military experience can be employed to assist civilian law enforcement agencies to fight the corrosive effect of illegal drugs in American society,” he said.
“As we've seen with recent incidents along our southwest border, the scourge of drugs migrating across our borders constitutes a real threat,” he said. “Consequently, our National Guard counter-drug program fills a very vital need.”
McKinley said nearly a quarter of the capability of the National Guard counterdrug program exists today because of additional funding provided by Congress.
He added that the evolution of today's threat environment has made it essential for the National Guard to strike the proper balance between an operational force and a strategic hedge.
“The asymmetry of our adversaries require us to have an adaptable force that is capable of efficiently engaging in the current fight while maintaining a cost-effective surge capability, prepared for tomorrow's threat,” McKinley said.
Today, there are about 460,000 members of the Army and the Air National Guard. “Our strength is good, and our retention is even better,” he said.
As the U.S. armed forces continue to conduct operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world, McKinley said units of the Army and the Air National Guard are participating as total force partners in that effort.
“The National Guard has repeatedly over the past decade proven itself to be a ready, accessible, and I would conclude, a reliable force,” McKinley said. “We have validated the total force concept by showing that the men and women in our formations are ready to answer the call, to be mobilized, or in the case of the Air National Guard, to be volunteered, to deploy overseas, return home and then become prepared to do it again and again.”
He publicly thanked the Army and Air Force for including the National Guard in their force planning constructs for these operations.
McKinley also thanked the committee for its support of the Yellow Ribbon Program and other personnel programs that take care of Soldiers and Airmen and their families.
“The most critical part of the proven capability, however, is our National Guard men and women,” he said. “Today's men and women volunteer to join or stay in the National Guard, fully expecting to be deployed.
“This shift in expectation is a central aspect of the National Guard, and I would argue, with my colleagues from the other reserve components, shift to becoming a fully operational force, and no longer merely a strategic reserve.”
McKinley said Guard members want to remain central players in the nation's defense and would resist any move to return to a role limited to a strictly strategic reserve.