Pentagon to detail plan for military to bolster homeland security

[PORed]

DNall so your issue with DHS is they are civilians. So by that justification all agencies that fall under the Justice Department are a failure as well. How about the Department of Defense for that matter, they have a civilian politician secretary in charge of the organization. I am familiar with the National Guard structure and most of them are not active guard, for the most part it is support personnel that are Active Guard. There is nothing wrong with active response force for this type scenario, we have worked with ME National Guard here in Portland for dirty bomb scenario and stuff like that, they where great and very knowledgeable. This is a dedicated rapid reaction force to deal with these threats it comes down from the recomendation of people much smarter and more in the know then you or me. And once again I am reminded that arguing on forums is useless.

[DNall]

Slow your roll & read what I said.

I didn't say MY problem with them was they're civilians. I actually said emergency response SHOULD be majority civilian AND civilian controlled. I don't think the military should be involved any more than absolutely necessary.

What I said is politicians/general public have a higher degree of trust in, and very strong preference for the decisive order following get the mission done & sort out the legal issues later military. I said the military is going to tend to give a substandard response to what civilian agencies can or should be able to do, but we're still going to use the military, cause we have them & we trust them more.

I don't have a problem with any individual agency of DHS that I've had exposure with. As I said, it's the currently poor integration, and their poor performance as an overall agency due to that integration, and frankly some missing pieces and under-developed portfolio. That will all mature out eventually, but so far they've given the public the impression their trust is better placed in the military, and that's unfortunate.

Of course the majority of the national guard is not full-time, but a significant number are. Yes there are admin/support types & they are most visible, but the majority of full-timers are actually focused on operations & training. There's also a special operations task force that assists law enforcement, there's a very large counter drug task force, there's a large staff running 24hr operations center & trickle down at key units, there's a whole slate of full-time instructors, and there's CST.

CST is full time does nothing but response to these kinds of WMD scenarios. They are and will remain the tip of the spear. The federal force being set up is NOT taking over for them, nor will it be as capable. It is very specifically a less specialized follow-on force. It will respond to CST driven situations, and to back up the guard in disaster response, again as a follow up force.

[PORed]

Groovy

[JohnKachenmeister]

OR, you can take troops already on active duty, take them out of the rotation to train up for this domestic contingency, then put them back in the rotation = minimal cost for maximum gain.

Unless they happen to actually be deployed.  Then what happens??  Do you always leave them out of rotation?  If that is the case, then this should fall to the Department of Homeland Security. 

PLUS cost wise......it takes more tax dollars to train Regular component than it does to train NG.  Cause states are required to pay for a very small bit of NG training along with the FED.  If you want to get real technical......the real world costs to keep NG or even RESERVE soldiers training for this mission does not equal the enormous amount that it would cost to train AD.  Lets not forget we are paying for AD soldiers food, family support, education, etc 365 days per year.  NG and Reserve we pay for their subsistence only a few weeks out of the year.  At a taxpayer vantage......training up NG or reserve to do this mission may actually be more cost effective. 

I am not saying this is a bad idea, but there are other options that should be investigated before the AD component gets this mission. 

I don't want to steal DNall's thunder, especially since his experience is way more recent than mine, but...

The US Govt. pays for all NG training except state-specific training (such as training an MP unit in state law in preparation for a deployment to a riot.)  Training a NG unit to do this recovery mission would cost the same as training a AD unit.

IF such a scenario took place, the Guard would be among the victims, not among the responders.  So would the Guardsmen's families.   Even WE humble, stupid, uniform-wearing civilian wannabees who can't wear uniforms right plan to bring CAP assets from areas NOT affected by a disaster when we are called to respond on DR missions.

Where did you get the idea that the NG was a force designed to respond to domestic emergencies primarily?  The NG is, always has been, and always will be a part of the US Army and US Air Force that allows for the rapid expansion of the Army or Air Force by keeping trained persons on call in a reserve setting.  The term "National Guard," far from being descriptive of the mission, was adopted to honor Lafayette's "Garda National" that came to help us during the Revolution.  The Army Reserve was originally designed to augment the NG with a force comprised of medical professionals. 

[DNall]

^That's all correct, but we've very rapidly here transitioned away from being a strategic reserve. The IRR is now the strategic reserve, as jacked up as that is. And, NG is absolutely an operational force that deploys just as often as active duty.

More than half the combat power of the Army is in the national guard, and we come with our own support. The reserve on the other hand is primarily support units that back-fill mostly active duty units, but we get some of them. They don't deploy as much as units.

The guard is "on call" and on hand for the governor so we can respond quickly to situations, but we're just one part of a giant team it takes to tackle emergencies. Luckily we also tend to find ourselves in leadership positions within that response, which is why I'm here & not the reserves that offered me a direct commission or active that wanted to take me as a WO.