According to Robert Gates, the Pentagon is also considering changing the role of the National Guard and Reserve forces as it contemplates budget cuts. Options include dividing them into a strategic reserve and an operational reserve with different pay, training and equipment, or possibly moving heavy or infantry brigades into the Guard. The U.S. military has relied and utilized more from National Guard and Reserve Forces than ever to supply the troops needed to prosecute Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) simultaneously. Gates claims that the changes are being examined for the fiscal year starting 1 Oct. and for the following 12 months. To read more about this subject, please go to: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-06/u-s-mulls-national-guard-role-as-budget-cuts-near-gates-says.html
Wow, talk about the more things change, the more they stay the same. Prior to the BCT re-organization that the Army went through in 2004-2006 the National Guard had what was known as E-Brigades, for Enhanced Brigades. E-Brigades were the National Guard units that were funded up to 75% of their requested budgets, manpower, equipment, etc. Those that were not E-Brigades were funded and staffed at less than 75%.
The idea was that the E-Brigades were the first to ever get called up and mobilize with the active Army. These were the Brigades you saw first mobilized in the GWOT. Units like the 39th, 27th, 41st, 81st, and many other brigades were those E-Brigades.
Now it seems that with budgets cutting and the open commitment of soldiers become lower to wars around the world that the outgoing SecDef is almost proposing going back to the same mindset. Pretty scary because of the smaller active military we have today, only means that our country will continue to depend heavily on the National Guard and the Reserves. Segregating our reserve component soldiers into the groups of the “haves” and the “have nots” sends a bad message to those units in the “have not” category. Every MOS, every branch of the Army and Air Force is needed to wage a war.
