By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

WASHINGTON – The National Guard must remain community-based, maintain proficiency, modernize proportionally with the active component and communicate, collaborate and coordinate with other military and government agencies.

Those are some of Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley’s bottom-line messages in the 2011 National Guard Posture Statement released last week.

“The Guard must remain a community-based organization with a clear understanding of its dual role: to serve abroad in support of our national defense; and to serve the governors and people of the states, territories and the District of Columbia to which they belong,” the chief of the National Guard Bureau writes in the statement.

“The National Guard must remain an operational force, indeed a strategic force, and must be resourced as such, so we can assist the Army and Air Force as much as possible,” McKinley writes.

Late winter and early spring is a season of posture statements for the armed forces here in the nation’s capital, where the leaders of military institutions provide congressionally required written testimony outlining the state of their commands and their needs for Congress to consider as it reviews the president’s budget.

The National Guard is critical to U.S. Northern Command’s mission, Air Force Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., the combatant commander told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington, D.C., March 11, 2010. Renuart is photographed here at the National Guard's 2009 Joint Senior Leadership Conference in National Harbor, Md., on Nov. 20, 2009. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

ARLINGTON, Va. — The National Guard is critical to U.S. Northern Command’s mission, the combatant commander told a congressional committee on Thursday.

“National Guard and Reserve forces are critical to [NORTHCOM's] ability to carry out our assigned homeland defense and civil support missions,” Air Force Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr. said in his 2010 posture statement presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee. He also commands North American Aerospace Defense Command.

“We recognize the National Guard as a fundamental partner in the Total Force and essential to the security and defense of our nation,” he said. “The Air National Guard provides the bulk of NORAD’s operational force for air sovereignty alert missions and is developing additional capabilities in support of domestic requirements.

“The Army National Guard provides all of the manning at our ground-based interceptor sites in support of missile defense requirements. Additionally, the Army National Guard provides the bulk of personnel for ground-based defense capabilities protecting the National Capital Region.”

Stood up in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, NORTHCOM is – in Renuart’s words – “inextricably linked” with NORAD at their shared Colorado Springs, Colo., headquarters.

NORTHCOM is responsible for homeland defense, sustaining continuous situational awareness and readiness to protect the homeland against a range of symmetric and asymmetric threats in all domains.

Its area of responsibility includes the continental United States, Alaska, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas, French territory off the Canadian coast and three British Overseas Territories.

“We are focused on deterring, preventing and defeating attacks against the United States,” Renuart said. “We also stand ready to support primary agencies … in responding quickly to natural or manmade disasters.”

NORTHCOM’s missions are intertwined with National Guard missions. Indeed, the command is extremely joint with personnel from every branch of the armed forces and many civilian agencies assigned to Colorado Springs.

The command has the largest concentration of Title 10 National Guard officers in a joint organization outside the National Guard Bureau, and the most recent deputy commander has been Army Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, who was the chief of the National Guard Bureau until late 2008.

“Our ongoing partnerships with the National Guard have increased our ability to coordinate and integrate joint and interagency operations,” Renuart said. “I am pleased to report our collaboration … has never been better, and the experience gained by Guardmembers serving throughout [NORTHCOM] ensures we have a strong foundation for enhancing this relationship.”

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.

Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, left, said Jan. 22, 2010, at the national States and Territories Hurricane Response Workshop in Tampa, Fla., that more agencies are communicating and collaborating better to prepare for domestic hurricane response. Also pictured are Air Force Gen. Victor E. Renuart, Jr., commander, Northern Command; Juliette Kayyem, assistant secretary, the Department of Homeland Security, and Rear Adm. Mary Landry, commander, 8th Coast Guard District. The National Guard Bureau and Northern Command co-sponsored the weeklong workshop hosted by the Florida National Guard. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt.Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

TAMPA, Fla. (1-22-10) – More agencies are communicating and collaborating better as a team preparing for the next hurricane response, the chief of the National Guard Bureau said here today.

Flanked by the commander of Northern Command and senior Department of Homeland Security, Coast Guard and other leaders, Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley said hurricane preparation is steadily improving.

“The more players we get at this table, the better we all are going to be,” McKinley said.

McKinley and Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, commander, Northern Command are scheduled to brief President Obama on the workshop, and the week’s work here is expected to be reflected in hurricane plans.