A vision for the national guard

Joint Force Quarterly,  Dec, 2004  by H. Steven Blum

Tags: Air Force, bureau, Federal Reserve Board, Government, secretary

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To further this end, NGB has begun capitalizing on existing connectivity throughout the states and territories to establish a Joint Continental United States (CONUS) Communications Support Enterprise (JCCSE), linking NORTHCOM, PACOM, OSD-HD, and other Federal and state stakeholders. JCCSE would help provide command, control, and communications for the entire spectrum of HLS/HD/MACA missions and is one of several initiatives to extend and improve communications and interoperability to domestic incident sites.

Secretary Rumsfeld has tasked CNGB to adapt the National Guard to better support the war on terrorism, HD, and HLS. Learning to operate in a joint environment, as our combat forces increasingly do, is the most important step in this regard. Jointness is a state of mind; it is about how we think, act, and approach our jobs. Jointness cannot stop at the NGB level. It must build bottom-up from the states and become second nature there as well.

The adjutants general, as full partners in our initiatives, have begun the transformation of the Guard headquarters in each of the states, territories, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. A provisional joint force headquarters (JFHQ) was stood up in each state on October 1, 2003. When tied to the proper administrative and joint professional military education (JPME) processes, this measure will yield more joint-qualified officers and greater interoperability with the active components. More importantly, JFHQ can provide a standing joint force command and control capability across the Nation that would be available to combatant commanders (as well as Governors) for HLS/HD operations. Furthermore, the state headquarters transformation created efficiencies by consolidating the three separate headquarters in each state under one commander, using the manpower saved to fill shortages in lower-echelon units.

The concept plans required to formally establish JFHQs at the state level are still under Joint Staff review, but the concept has already been operationally tested numerous times, most notably during the G-8 summit on Sea Island, the Democratic National Convention in Boston, and the Republican National Convention in New York City. In each case, an unprecedented and ground-breaking chain of command was implemented by virtue of a memorandum of agreement between the President and the Governors of Georgia, Massachusetts, and New York. A single National Guard officer was given command authority over Guard forces operating in state active duty and Title 32 status, as well as over all Federal Title 10 military forces supporting the event.

In a meeting with CNGB, the Joint Staff J-7 (Operational Plans and Joint Force Development) agreed that the Guard Bureau should be used as a partner to provide input for policy and doctrine for HLS/HD/MACA. The Guard is a natural leader in this arena; no other part of DOD has as much practical experience or the statutory intergovernmental role for dealing with civil authorities. It makes sense to put that role and experience to use. NGB has committed manpower to assist J-7 in developing joint doctrine, education, training, and exercises. In turn, J-7 has committed to a trial implementation of the joint training information management system at NGB and in Tennessee and Puerto Rico. Teaming with J-7, NGB will use its automated exercise and assessment system to assist in validating joint and interagency readiness and will be configuring the 3 National Guard education centers and 318 distance learning facilities to increase the availability of JPME for both the active and Reserve components. Joint training will be critical to the future of the National Guard. Congress has insisted that the Reserve components be included in the DOD drive toward jointness, and the NGB task is to ensure that JPME opportunities become available so that we can meet this mandate.