Two top officers oppose elevation of National Guard chief

Two top military officers argued Thursday that congressional efforts to boost the heavily deployed National Guard's influence in the corridors of the Pentagon are an unnecessary move that ultimately would segregate the Guard from their active-duty counterparts.

Members of the independent Commission on the National Guard and Reserves questioned the officers during a Capitol Hill hearing, just days after both chambers approved an fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill that requires the commission to study whether the Pentagon should promote the three-star Guard chief and secure him a seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"My gut feeling is that would be divisive," said Gen. James Jones, chief of U.S. European Command and former Marine Corps commandant. "What we want is integration, not segregation by virtue of a new system."

Indeed, opponents within the Bush administration have argued that adding another officer to the Joint Chiefs -- which now includes the highest ranking officers of each military service, plus a chairman and a vice chairman -- would essentially establish the Guard as its own service. Doing so, opponents say, would create more bureaucracies and conflict with the services' efforts to field a "total force" of both active-duty and reserve components.

"I can't think of very much positive, from my perspective, about it," Gen. Lance Smith, commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command, told the commission. "I deal with stovepipes all the time and the last thing we need is another stovepipe," he said, referring to the Pentagon's abundance of narrowly focused, vertical bureaucracies.

Their arguments conflict with those made by dozens of National Guard advocates on Capitol Hill, who have stressed that the Guard needs a stronger voice during top-level budget, policy and operational discussions.

Sens. Christopher (Kit) Bond, R-Mo., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., co-chairmen of the Senate National Guard Caucus, have criticized defense authorization conferees for stripping from the conference report a Senate-passed provision to promote the Guard chief to four-star rank and give him more authority to communicate directly with the Defense secretary and other agencies. The provision did not authorize a Joint Chiefs seat for the Guard chief, as stand-alone legislation introduced in both chambers does.

Both officers emphasized the military's success in making National Guard and Reserve units an integral part of the force. Joint Forces Command, for instance, is working to ensure that Guard and Reserve officers and troops receive adequate training for real-world missions, often alongside active-duty units.

"If we didn't realize it before, I think everybody realizes it now," Smith said. "It's imperative."

But Smith said Joint Forces Command needs to keep better track of Guard units when they are deployed at the state level to give active-duty commanders a better idea about the stress placed on Guard troops and equipment. Jones, meanwhile, acknowledged the military could do more to ensure that reservists are compensated and rewarded for their duty.