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 Operational reserve needs new policies, base funding source, Lamont says By Army Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy, National Guard Bureau
 WASHINGTON, - An increased reliance on the Guard and reserve has created the need for new policies that will ensure the two components remain relevant in the future, a senior Army leader said here at the annual conference of the Association of the U.S. Army Oct. 26. "What has become obvious today is that the Army, in particular, needs to achieve a more cost-effective total force through an increased reliance on the reserve components," Tom Lamont, assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs, told conference attendees "(Their) wartime experience of the past decade validates the need to institutionalize in policies, procedures and legislation (so as to be) conducive to achieving the most efficient use of the total force." He added that while the Guard and Army Reserve have been performing and exceeding mission requirements and expectations, they have also been put into an operational role that they have not been properly resourced for. Resources for this role need to come from a base funding source, rather than for contingency operations. "These investments are required within the base funding to ensure the reserve component achieves a level of institutional transformation that cannot be achieved by year-to-year allocation of resources for overseas contingency operations funds," said Lamont, adding that currently policies are being developed to ensure those resource requirements are in place. Those policy changes stem from a 2008 memo by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates directing the chiefs of each military service branch to "manage their respective reserve components as an operational force," said Lamont. The increased reliance on the Guard and reserve also means taking on missions outside of combat or peacekeeping. "A new limited Title 10 authority would provide the secretary of defense and the military departments a mechanism for deploying the reserve component to support peacetime force generation requirements, such as theatre security cooperation missions, rotational forces to Europe or Korea or other force generation requirements that are longer than 30 days in duration," said Lamont. If the Army Guard remains an operational force that is utilized for contingencies, many Soldiers will stay in the ranks, said Army Maj. Gen. Raymond Carpenter, acting director of the Army National Guard. "We are going to lose those Soldiers in a minute if we don't continue to challenge them," said Carpenter, adding that many Army Guard Soldiers he has spoken with have expressed a desire to continue to take part in current operations. "When they do theatre security cooperation (missions), when they go downrange (in a combat role), or they support state partnership programs or are involved in operations in Haiti (in response to the January earthquake), when they feel like they've done something, they'll stay with us," he said. "When they feel like they are sitting on their duffel bag somewhere or they are at "Camp Swampy" and they are not doing anything, they'll leave us in a minute." Carpenter said although the Army Guard has never been better equipped, changes need to be made to ensure those Soldiers and equipment are a full partner in the Army's total force structure. "Since 2005, this nation has made a $37 billion investment in the National Guard," he said. "We have waves of equipment coming into the Army National Guard. If we can't figure out how to access the Army Guard in this process our problem is going to be that $37 billion is going to be a wonderful situation for emergencies and disasters, but it's not going to help in terms of the federal warfight." Carpenter reiterated that policy level changes need to be in place to fully support the Army Guard as an operational force, especially as operations in Iraq draw down. "We have come a long way in this business and have made some huge investments but we still have not solved some of the critical (issues) to maintain this operational force," said Carpenter. "Funding is still not at the pace to support the operational force. The authorities Secretary Lamont talked about are still not in place for us to involuntary mobilize a Guard or reserve unit to ... anything other than a named mobilization." Lamont stressed that the needed policy changes - to ensure the Army Guard continues on as an operational force in missions outside of combat operations - are currently being made and may be seen as early as fiscal year 2013. "(It) would allow DoD components to program and budget for a greater use of the reserve components to meet steady-state requirements within the base budget," he said. And that is key within the Army. "As an Army directive, the utilization of the Army's total force necessitates the development of a secretary of the Army policy of fully integrating the Army's three components," said Lamont.
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