We've stopped the bleeding, now it's time to get healthy

Like any good fight, the outcome is usually not determined by one or two early skirmishes. And so it is with our efforts to maintain a strong, healthy and deployable National Guard. We scored significant victories in our fight to secure adequate funding for full-time manning and military construction, or milcon, but now it's time to press on to complete victory.

Our top priority last year was funding for minimum Army National Guard full-time manning requirements. Our goal was to fund 25,500 military technician and 23,500 Active Guard and Reserve, or AGR, positions. We received $90 million in additional funding for 1,746 technicians and 623 AGRs. It was the first time in several years that we actually added full-time support.

While we were moderately happy with this progress, we still have not achieved our original goal. In order to do so, we need $76 million above the president's Fiscal Year 2001 budget request, which would fund an additional 1,543 more technicians and 1,052 AGRs.

If we realize this goal - which would meet only our minimum requirements we can start looking at our validated requirements. Then we could begin to fill additional full-time manning needs in units scheduled to deploy in the near future. Despite last year's increases in milcon, we're still years away from where we must be in terms of operating in proper facilities. The president's 2001 defense budget request leaves us with the same $5.6 billion shortfall that we began with last year.

Our pursuit of milcon funding this year is designed to show the scope of the problem in a way that gets every senator behind us. We've identified two priority construction projects - one Army and one Air - for each state this year (see pages 36-37). We hope that by identifying these priorities, which were chosen by the adjutants general, we will raise the level of awareness of the problem. By working in tandem with the states, we hope to show Congress the impact that this lack of funding is having on the quality of life of our Guardsmen and the readiness of our units.

This leaves us with the problem of modernization. Although the Army put more funding in this year's budget request for procurement, there are tremendous shortfalls in the Guard for combat vehicles, such as Bradley Fighting Vehicles and MI tanks; aviation systems, such as the Black Hawk and Apache helicopters; and missile systems. These are critical modernization needs to keep the Guard's combat forces deployable.

The adjutants general endorsed procurement of Black Hawk and Apache helicopters as top modernization priorities for the Army Guard during their annual midwinter conference in Washington last month. On the Air Guard side, the adjutants general agreed that F-16 procurement and upgrading is the most pressing need for our units. Their efforts will add weight to obtaining our needs, but it is the grassroots lobbying effort of the NGAUS that will prove critical.

We cannot rest on our laurels. The bell for round two in this fight has already rung. And the fact this is an election year has a couple of implications. First, decisions about the defense budget will be made quickly because congressional members need to get back home to campaign. That means most of them will be right in our backyard, which is where you will have an opportunity to get their attention on these critical readiness issues.

This congressional year is also important because we are approaching the nation's second Quadrennial Defense Review. Developments in Congress during the next several months will undoubtedly have an impact on the outcome of the QDR, which will be released next year. We must make our needs known to Congress if we are to continue on a course of recovery for the National Guard.

We're coming off a good year in Congress, but we need to maintain that momentum. We're still hurting in many critical areas. In short, we've stopped the bleeding. Now it's time to get healthy.

Maj. Gen. E. Gordon Stump

President, NGAUS

Copyright National Guard Association of the United States Mar 2000
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