October 2007 ■ ARMY 133

T

he Army National Guard (ARNG) fulfills a vital

role in the nation’s defense at home and abroad

by providing crucial combat, combat support

and combat service support units to the combatant commanders, the Army, Joint and combined

forces, and the states and territories. These ready

forces are capable of performing full spectrum operations in support of our civil and military leadership.

As the ARNG operates in the sixth year of the global

war on terrorism, the organization is well established as

a battle-hardened and respected fighting force. The

Army National Guard is

now an operational force,

and transformation to

modularity will result in

an ARNG that is manned

and equipped to fully

modernized and interchangeable Army assets.

Army National Guard: 

An Integral Part of Army Strong

By Lt. Gen. Clyde A. Vaughn

Director, Army National Guard
The Army National Guard continues to be an important element of the nation’s emergency preparedness network,

with missions both at home and abroad. In the wake of the

terrorist attacks on 9/11, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires

and the border mission, ARNG is as relevant and ready as

it has been at any time in its 370-year history.

Primary goals for fiscal year (FY) 2008 focus on end

strength, transformation and equipping. Primary accomplishments for FY 2007 were record increases in end

strength, transforming while operating and supporting the

warfight while protecting the homeland.

In FY 2006 the Army National Guard added 13,111 soldiers

to its rolls—the most growth since the draft era of the Vietnam War—yielding an end-of-year strength of 346,288 soldiers. As of April 30, ARNG end strength was 350,821. The

next ARNG end-strength goal is to reach 360,000 in FY 2008.

The Army National Guard, in line with the Army’s ongoing modular conversion to more independent and interchangeable forces, is restructuring to create modular forces

while increasing full spectrum capabilities. The brigade

combat teams (BCTs) of the Army National Guard are being staffed and aligned just as are those of the active Army.

ARNG BCTs can be combined with other BCTs or elements

of the Joint force, which facilitates their integration, compatibility and interoperability. Other ARNG brigades—

combat aviation, theater aviation, sustainment, maneuver

enhancement and fire brigades—are also being restructured to create modular forces.

The modular forces, with the BCT at the core, are more

capable, more pliant and can be deployed more rapidly.

The modular organization also sustains the Army force

generation (ARFORGEN) model to establish and coordinate cycles of readiness and training for units. The fiveyear rotation model of the ARNG divides forces into three

pools: ready, available and reset/train. Higher-level collective training in preparation for deployment and mission

preparation is performed by the ready force pool. The

available force pool consists of those ARNG units available

for operations. The units returning from a major operation

in theater make up the reset/retrain pool.

The U.S. Army is moving from a threat-based Army to a

capabilities-based Army. This movement is a paradigm

shift and a major culture change, a transformation. One of

the key elements of this transformation is a rebalancing of

134 ARMY ■ October 2007

LT. GEN. CLYDE A. VAUGHN is the director, Army National Guard (ARNG),

National Guard Bureau (NGB). He previously served as the assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for National Guard matters. He was commissioned through Officer Candidate School.

He served as platoon leader, 1221st Transportation Company, and platoon leader for

Company C and Detachment 1, Company A, 1140th Engineer

Battalion. He remained with the 1140th Engineer Battalion,

serving as reconnaissance officer, engineering officer, executive

officer and company commander. He then served with the 135th

Engineer Group as utilities engineer and operations officer. He

served as exercise officer with the 193rd Infantry Brigade in

Panama and later detailed as S-3 in the Joint Chiefs of Staff Exercise Abriendo Rutas, Ecuador, and later as the operations officer for the Exercise Branch, U.S. Army South in Panama. He

was the Overseas Deployment Training manager for ARNG Operations and Exercise Branch, NGB Operating Activity Center,

and then served as commander of Task Force 354 (Fuertes

Caminos 91) U.S. Army South, in Panama. He then became the

plans section chief, Army National Guard Operations and Exercises Branch, NGB, and then chief of the Operations and Exercises Branch, Army National Guard Operations Division, NGB,

the next year. He returned to Panama as the deputy chief of staffReserve Affairs-National Guard, U.S. Army South, and special

assistant for Reserve Affairs for U.S. Southern Command. He

remained in Panama with U.S. Army South to become commander, Exercise Support Command, and deputy chief of staffReserve Affairs-National Guard, followed by a stint as the chief

of the Operations Division, ARNG, after which he became the

deputy director for Operations, Readiness and Mobilization, Office of the G-3/G-5, U.S. Army. Two years later he became the

deputy director of the Army National Guard. Gen. Vaughn

graduated from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College.

Sgt. Resolve Savage, Arizona National Guard, with an Afghan

boy outside a hospital in Nuristan Province.
the force with the objectives and challenges of addressing

high demand for federal and state forces despite unit shortages in both personnel and equipment. Our history of first

responder capabilities highlights the need for prepositioned

personnel and equipment, especially during hurricane,

wildfire and flooding seasons.

The ARNG is working on solutions for five BCTs mobilizing in FY 2008: the 45th BCT (Okla.), the 76th BCT (Ind.),

the 39th BCT (Ark.), the 37th BCT (Ohio) and the 27th BCT

(N.Y.). Priority is for premobilization training and deployment requirements. The ARNG is initiating action to support the training, mobilization and deployment for the FY

2008 mobilizing BCTs. Because of recent or future conversion of the force to modular design, as well as the existing

equipment shortages, equipment shortfalls will be a major

challenge. Three equipping concerns must be addressed:

equipment to conduct relevant premobilization training,

equipment to conduct postmobilization training and

equipment to accompany the units to theater. Equipping

solutions include allocation of new procurement, cross-leveling from other ARNG units and Army issue of theaterprovided equipment.

The implementation of the 12-month mobilization policy

has focused and intensified premobilization training. The

National Guard Bureau (NGB) has identified the equipment required by the units to conduct the tasks identified

for the months that remain before mobilization. The states

that will provide the units are, in some cases, establishing

sets of training equipment to conduct collective training to

complete the tasks. NGB is allocating new equipment that

will be delivered in the near term to support these tasks

and cross-leveling or loaning equipment as well. Shortfalls

that remain after cross-leveling will be escalated so Forces

Command, Army Materiel Command or DA can identify

other possible sources.

The Army has pledged to boost Guard spending by $23

billion through 2011, with further increases in subsequent

years. The goal is to ensure that the Guard has 75 percent

of its needed equipment by 2013 and is on track to equip at

100 percent, consistent with all components of the Army.

The ARNG exceeded its 350,000-soldier goal with an end

strength of 350,421 at the end of the second quarter, but

this accomplishment was no accident

or mere stroke of luck. The Guard increased the numbers of recruiting and

retention noncommissioned officers

from 2,700 in FY 2004 to 5,100 by the

end of FY 2006. Many steps were

taken to reverse negative trends and

maximize end strength. The ARNG increased bonus maximums to $20,000 for enlistments; $15,000 for reenlistments;

and $15,000 for prior service enlistments. These steps, as

well as increasing the recruiting and retention force,

helped move the ARNG end-strength trend upward starting in the fourth quarter of FY 2005 and continuing

through the end of May 2007.

The ARNG has implemented several initiatives to help

achieve and maintain congressionally authorized endstrength levels: the Guard recruiting assistance program

(G-RAP), every soldier a recruiter (ESAR), the recruit sustainment program (RSP) and the “American Soldier” and

“Army Strong” advertising campaigns. G-RAP is the

October 2007 ■ ARMY 135

Soldiers from the Texas Army National

Guard's 124th Cavalry Regiment, 36th 

Infantry Division, stand in formation during

an official welcome-home ceremony held

at Fort Hood, Texas. The soldiers completed a yearlong deployment in the Sinai,

Egypt, as part of the Multinational Force

and Observers peacekeeping mission.

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, 617th Military Police Company, Kentucky National Guard, earned the Silver

Star for thwarting an insurgent ambush of a Coalition convoy near Baghdad. She is speaking at the

U.S. Army Women’s Museum about her experience.
ARNG’s adaptation of civilian contract recruiting. G-RAP

recruiting assistants (RAs) are performance-based subcontractors who provide localized contract recruiting services

to the ARNG. The intent of the RSP is to reduce training

pipeline losses by introducing newly enlisted ARNG soldiers to the military environment and to ease their adjustment to basic combat training and advanced individual

training. With G-RAP, ESAR, RSP and RAs, the Army National Guard has the nation’s largest recruiting force—

more than 100,000 strong.

The transformation of the Army National Guard into

modular formations gives the Guard the ability to function

as an interchangeable operational force, not just a strategic

planning reserve. This is a key tool in not only managing

conversion efforts, but also toward meeting the NGB goal

of having at least 50 percent of Army and Air Force assets

available (personnel and equipment) to the governors and

adjutants general at any given time.

The Army National Guard continues to support the

Army’s goal to restructure its forces to modular designs offering stand-alone units capable of full spectrum operations. These units are full spectrum, go-to-war, need-totrain-together teams. In the end, these are going to be the

most resourced battalions we have.

This transformation effort affects more than 87 percent of

Guard units across all 50 states and our territories and

crosses every functional capability in the force. To date, the

Guard has transformed more than 1,500 operating force

units to their new designs. (An operating force represents

those units specifically organized to engage in combat, provide support or provide service support.) At the current

pace, the ARNG will successfully convert more than 1,300

additional units to the new modular designs by FY 2008. 

To provide the nation the necessary force structure to

combat terrorism at home and abroad and to fulfill domestic missions, the ARNG has fully embraced the creation of

the Army force generation model. ARFORGEN provides

predictability to potential time frames at which ARNG

units might be called to active federal service. The ARNG

has arrayed all of its units into the model to account for

when they can reasonably expect to be in the ready, available or reset/train pools. One of the important benefits of

using the model is that it assists ARNG decision makers at

all levels as they determine the best time to convert units

to modular designs.

Because of transformation and the global war on terrorism, the Army National Guard does have equipping shortfalls. While the war has reduced the equipment available

to nondeployed ARNG units, transformation has increased

overall equipment requirements.

As of May, more than 26,100 Guardmembers were serving

in Operation Iraqi Freedom (157,478 to date); more than

8,700 in Operation Enduring Freedom (21,333 to date); and

214 in Operation Noble Eagle (35,324 to date). Since 9/11,

more than 281,300 soldiers have been

mobilized under USC Title 10 authority (federal orders only) and more than

370,300 (some soldiers more than once)

under Title 10 or Title 32 (federal or

state orders).

In May a Fujita-scale force “5” tornado leveled Greensburg, Kan., leaving

behind 10 fatalities, more than 100 injured residents, and a wake of incredible destruction. The National Guard

rallied around Kansas—the Army National Guard deployed 366 soldiers and

the Air National Guard deployed an

additional 200. The Kansas Guard’s

278th Sustainment Brigade established

a Joint task force near the incident site.

The first responders swiftly initiated

search and rescue, power generation,

logistical support, debris cleaning and

support to law enforcement. During

recovery efforts the National Guard established shelters

and distributed food and water.

As of May, the ARNG has provided the equivalent of 32

BCTs for post-9/11 overseas deployments. The following

12 BCTs have deployed for one or more phases of Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom: 81st

Heavy BCT (HBCT) (Wash.); 56th Infantry BCT (IBCT)

(Texas), 36th Division; 39th IBCT (Ark.); 29th IBCT

(Hawaii); 30th HBCT (N.C.); 278th Cavalry BCT (Tenn.);

256th HBCT (La.); 2nd HBCT (Pa.), 28th Division; 116th

Cavalry BCT (Idaho); 48th IBCT (Ga.); 155th HBCT (Miss.);

and 1st HBCT (Minn.), 34th Division.

The ARNG continues to participate in Task Force

Phoenix, the Operation Enduring Freedom mission to train

the Afghan National Army (ANA). The intent of the Commander in Chief is to train the ANA force to be a self-sustaining army. This mission contributes to the stability of

the country. ✭

136 ARMY ■ October 2007

Members of the Guard’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Enhanced

Response Force Package teams dig simulated wounded from rubble during training.