Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, talks with Elaine Wright, who volunteers with the Maryland National Guard's family programs, at the 2010 National Guard Family Program Volunteer Workshop in New Orleans, La., on Aug. 2, 2010. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

NEW ORLEANS – Military readiness is directly tied to family readiness, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told National Guard family program volunteers here today.

“This is our ninth year at war,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said. “We continue at a level that has generated extraordinary results from the best military that I have ever been associated with in some 40-plus years.”

Family support has been a vital ingredient. “We couldn’t be anywhere close to where we are without you,” Mullen said.

The National Guard has transformed since Sept. 11, 2001, Mullen said. “There’s no institution where things have changed more dramatically than in the Guard,” he said. “We would not be anywhere close to where we are in terms of our execution of mission without the Guard and Reserve.”

And like other elements of the armed forces, the Guard has improved its family programs.

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

ARLINGTON, Va., (2/1/10) – A National Guard that has been vital to national defense for the past eight years will remain an operational force, according to the Department of Defense’s 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review released today.

“Preventing and deterring conflict will likely necessitate the continued use of some elements of the Reserve Component … in an operational capacity well into the future,” the QDR states.

The QDR is a legislatively mandated review of DoD strategy and priorities that occurs every four years.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates delivered the 2010 QDR report to Congress today. It is the fourth QDR since the 1997 act that made it mandatory and the second conducted in wartime.

“Over the past eight years, the National Guard and Reserves have consistently demonstrated their readiness and ability to make sustained contributions to ongoing operations,” the QDR states.

“We don’t want to put our National Guard back on the shelf like we’ve done after every major war our nation’s been in,” said Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau. “We’re going to have a demand on our National Guard for the foreseeable future.”

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997, which established the QDR, also required that it be conducted in consultation with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“We could not have accomplished what we have these past eight years were it not for our Reserve and National Guard forces,” Navy Adm. Michael Mullen wrote in his formal assessment of the QDR.