Guard sees no immediate impact from troop increase

The Tennessee Army and Air National Guard has been a vital part of the global war on terrorism since 9-11, deploying more than 10,700 soldiers and airmen.

?The Tennessee Guard has responded to every call for forces, and if called to serve again, we will respond with proven and capable warriors,? Hargett said. ?But I see no indication that Tennessee will be a part of the initial build-up of troops.?

?We have units that were alerted for possible deployment before this announcement, but no new units have been identified at this time.? Hargett continued.

In a conference call Thursday with Guard leadership across the nation, Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, Chief of the National Guard Bureau, outlined several changes in the process for deploying National Guard soldiers.

First, involuntary mobilization of reserve forces will be for a maximum of one year at a time. This decision means deployments will be for a total of 365 days to include individual skill training for deployments. Many Tennessee Guard units were deployed from 16 to 20 months due to pre-deployment training.

Second, mobilization of Guard forces will be managed primarily on a unit basis, giving the governor and the adjutant general a larger role in training and certifying soldiers for deployment. Whole units will be mobilized as opposed to individuals. Deploying entire units instead of individuals provides the combatant commander with a cohesive, prepared team that can jump to the task, reducing the familiarization period.

Third, the planning objective for involuntary mobilization of Guard units will remain a ratio of one year mobilized to five years demobilized. However, today?s global demands will require a number of selected units to be re-mobilized sooner than this standard. Exceptions to this policy are intended to be temporary with the intent of reaching the 1-to-5 ratio as soon as possible.

Also, the Department of Defense will establish a new program to compensate or provide incentives to individuals in both the active and reserve forces who are required to mobilize or deploy early or often, or to extend beyond the established rotation policy.