Deployment plan would relieve National Guard forces

The Army National Guard is reorganizing so that its soldiers will be deployed no more than once every six years, according to Army Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, director of the National Guard Bureau.

"We are going to be on pretty high stress for the next 18 months until we get this about right…and not abuse our members as much as I think we are right now," said Blum, who oversees both the Army National Guard and Air Guard. He made the comments during a Wednesday breakfast meeting with reporters.

There are about 110,000 Army National Guard soldiers and 10,000 Air Guard members mobilized for active duty. By this spring, about 40 percent of the forces in Iraq will be either reserve or Guard members.

All told, the Army National Guard and Air Guard have 460,000 members.

Blum said the Army Guard has been stressed more because it has shortages of high-demand units such as military police and Special Forces. Military police are not only needed in Iraq and Afghanistan, but have also been tapped for homeland security missions in the United States, he said.

Some of those units have been mobilized two or three times since Sept. 11, 2001. Recent mobilizations for Army Guardsmen have lasted one to two years.

The Air Guard has not been taxed as much because it was integrated into the Air Force's program for managing deploying forces, known as the aerospace expeditionary force. Under that schedule, active-duty Air Force personnel are deployed for no more than 90 days every 15 months, Air Guard members are called up even less frequently.

Blum said a similar deployment schedule is being crafted for Army Guard members, but the key will be developing modular units across the Guard that can fill both federal missions and state missions.

"We are looking at our entire inventory…and [asking] are they relevant today? Are they the kind of units we will need five or 10 or 20 years from now? And if they are not, I am taking and transforming them to what they need to be," Blum said.

The Army Guard is already retraining its underutilized combat units to fill military police roles. Blum estimates about one out of every 10 Guard soldiers now deployed is doing a job he was not originally trained for.

According to Blum, deployed Guard units also receive the same equipment as their active duty counterparts. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker has committed $4 billion over the next several years to ensure there are no disparities in equipment between active and reserve component soldiers when they are deployed.

"Several years ago we were at war with the Army and the Army was at war with us," Blum said. "Today there is no gap. You truly have one Army for the first time in the history of this country."

The commitment to equal equipment is a sign of improved relations, according to Blum.

The National Guard will soon add 12 civil support teams across the nation, Blum added. Already, 32 states have the highly trained teams that assist in responding to domestic weapons of mass-destruction attacks.

Blum downplayed recent surveys that found one in four Army National Guard members was dissatisfied with military service. He says retention rates across the Army and Air National Guard have been strong in recent months.

He conceded that paycheck problems continue to plague Guard members as they are mobilized, and will only get worse in the months ahead as more Guardsmen are called up. Blum added there were problems with his paycheck two out of the three times he was mobilized. The Defense Department has said it is working on improving its pay system, but it could take a few years.