WASHINGTON - Predictability is the Army National Guard's key to success as it continues to meet the needs of the active Army, the deputy director of the Army Guard said here today.
"The Army force generation model (ARFORGEN) has truly been the tool in which the Army Guard can provide that predictability its Soldiers," said Army Brig. Gen. Timothy Kadavy. "It has also provided that precision needed to manage and ensure that those units have the equipment and the training that they needed to support the war fight.
"That predictability is key for not only our Soldiers, but also for their families and employers."
Kadavy said that without ARFORGEN, "it would have been almost impossible to provide Forces Command with Soldiers and units that are ready at their mobilization date."
It is this predictability that Kadavy said has allowed units to collectively receive the training that they need and to also create that unit cohesiveness that is important when deployed overseas.
"In some cases, it allows for a unit to know what the mission is 18 months to sometimes 24 months beforehand," he said.
"It really is the synchronizing tool between personnel, training and equipment, not only ensuring our ability to have readiness for the mission to support the war fight, but also to maintain readiness to meet whatever requirements we may have here at home."
Kadavy added that as the Army Guard has moved from a strategic reserve to an operational force, officials have had to adjust how they manage resources, such as training and equipment.
"What we did up until about 2003 or 2004, was create brigades that had higher levels of resources and were at a higher level of readiness than other brigades," said Kadavy. "Those units that were identified as part of these brigades had higher levels of end strength, more advanced equipment, and more dollars to receive higher levels of training.
"But as we began to enter the main theatres of operation, we realized that what was required of us was far greater than what we had as far as units that were fully ready, and that the units that were first called up right after 9/11 were not these units that we had invested in so much."
Kadavy said to "spread the wealth" people were pulled from units that were capable of performing the mission and not going, and placing them in units that needed manpower and were going. Equipment was also moved around from those who had it, to those who were going next.
"This not only created issues with Soldier morale, but also training issues as units lost equipment to train on," he said.
Since the attacks of Sep. 11, 2001, the Army Guard has mobilized about 430,000 Soldiers, Kadavy said. Of the Soldiers currently in the Army Guard, 59 percent have been mobilized or deployed previously.