Beyond the Weekend

Unraveling the Reality of National Guard Member

By CW4 Amada Aragon, National Guard Bureau

January 1, 2024 | Warrant Officer Journal, January-March 2024 Edition

Read Time: < 11 mins

Introduction

In an ever-evolving landscape of defense and national security, the National Guard emerges as a steadfast pillar of strength, resilience, and readiness. From its inception as the militia to its formal establishment under the Military Act of 1903, the National Guard has remained integral to safeguarding the nation’s interests, responding to crises, and preserving domestic and international peace. Comprised primarily of traditional members, the National Guard’s service model typically entails monthly drills and annual training days, allowing individuals to balance their civilian pursuits with military obligations. However, this dual commitment presents unique challenges in meeting readiness requirements and advancing military careers. To address these complexities and optimize readiness and retention within the National Guard, the Army must offer flexible and accessible Professional Military Education (PME) options. This paper examines the multifaceted demands faced by National Guard members, including training, administrative duties, and PME requirements. It proposes strategies to bolster readiness, career progression, and retention within this vital component of our national defense.

Challenges to Achieve Readiness

Traditional National Guard members achieve readiness by attending training one weekend a month, generally Saturday and Sunday, for 12 months and two weeks or 14 days a year. During these training days, leaders have ten hours daily, from 0700 to 1700, to conduct training and ensure readiness. This time allowed excludes two hours for Physical Readiness Training (PRT) and personal hygiene and an additional hour for lunch. Commanders are left with seven hours per day for each of the two days per month for 12 months and 14 days per year, or 266 hours per year, to ensure readiness.

The specific number of hours needed to maintain an individual soldier’s readiness depends on various factors such as mission requirements, operational tempo, unit readiness goals, and individual soldier’s proficiency. Maintaining soldier readiness is a continuous process that involves ongoing training, education, and preparation to ensure that military personnel are fully capable of meeting the demands of their duties and contributing to the overall readiness of their units and the military. To appreciate the time constraints of traditional National Guard Members, below is an example of the yearly training requirements for legal personnel to achieve readiness within approximately 266 hours:

• In addition to the daily PRT, units must plan, set up, and perform the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) twice a year, which can be time-consuming.

• Military personnel undergo a Periodic Health Assessment (PHA) to evaluate their overall health and medical readiness, which generally takes several days. Any identified health issues that may affect readiness require additional time to address.

• Soldiers must devote significant time to dental readiness, including preventive care, exams, education, screenings, and treatment.

• Guard members spend significant time on administrative tasks such as completing forms, reviews, and updating personal records.

• Soldiers spend time maintaining their security clearance, which includes undergoing thorough background investigations.

• Soldiers undergo extensive training in weapon familiarization, marksmanship fundamentals, live-fire exercises, qualification standards, safety, and maintenance to ensure military readiness and weapons proficiency.

• During military training, soldiers may be subjected to random drug tests without prior notice, taking them away from other training for several hours.

• Significant time is allocated to driver training, licensing, preventive maintenance checks, equipment services, and inventories during training.

• Much of the weekend training is dedicated to preparing and conducting ceremonies for awards, promotions, and retirements.

• Commanders dedicate a considerable amount of training time to ensure their personnel are well-prepared and informed about various threats. This includes training on information security, information awareness, threat awareness, and operations security. Soldiers also undergo extensive cyber awareness and anti-terrorism training to mitigate cyber threats and protect against terrorist activities. This training alone takes up a considerable amount of time. Additionally, personnel must receive training on handling controlled classified information according to Department of Defense (DoD) standards to maintain security protocols and compliance within the organization.

• Significant time is dedicated to training initiatives covering essential aspects such as Army Values, ethics, Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP), Equal Opportunity, combating trafficking persons, resilience, and suicide prevention.

• An unimaginable number of hours are used in army leadership development, which encompasses a comprehensive approach to cultivating the knowledge, skills, and attributes required for effective leadership at all levels within the Army. This development process includes regular performance evaluations, such as Officer Evaluation Reports (OERs) and Non-Commissioned Officer Evaluation Reports (NCOERs). To assist in the development of evaluations, soldiers, and leaders participate in 360-degree assessments to create Individual Development Plans outlining the soldier goals, objectives, and areas for growth. Mentorship and coaching also help facilitate leadership development. Leadership courses and training are conducted at the unit level to assist in leadership development. Finally, leadership assignments and opportunities, such as command positions and staff roles, allow for the application of leadership principles in real-world situations. Leadership development demands a significant portion of the 266 yearly hours dedicated to readiness.

• The Mission Essential Tasks (METs) specific to JAG include a range of crucial functions essential for maintaining legal readiness within the organization. These tasks consume a significant portion of the 266 hours allotted for training each year. Commanders must ensure that soldiers receive Monthly Officer Professional Development (OPD) and Non-Commissioned Officer Professional Development (NCOPD) classes to enhance their leadership skills, personal and professional knowledge, and technical abilities. These classes cover various topics, including training on legal assistance duties and responsibilities, Military Justice (MJ) updates, Financial Liability Investigations of Property Loss (FLIPLs), Article 15s, and administrative separations.

• National Guard JAG members require training on a range of legal subjects, such as the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC), detention operations, rule of law, national security, Rules of Engagement (ROE), Status of Forces Agreements (SOFA), and fiscal law. They receive training on these topics and devote significant time to preparing and presenting briefings to other soldiers.

• The JAG Corps has several essential responsibilities, which include providing legal assistance during every drill and handling around 400-500 cases annually. Additionally, JAG personnel must support Soldier Readiness Processing (SRP) events, assist with General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand (GOMOR) rebuttals, help with administrative boards, conduct legal reviews on separation packets, and assist during hearings. Legal services take significant time, particularly considering the limited number of JAG personnel available to handle the high demand.

The numerous training requirements, administrative tasks, and leadership development programs are essential to achieving readiness and ensuring that military personnel are fully capable of meeting the demands of their duties. However, this continuous and demanding process requires significant time. Completing all the requirements is challenging within 266 hours, begging the question of how commanders achieve readiness for traditional National Guard members.

Impacts

The Status of Forces Surveys (SOFS) program is a personnel program mandated by Congress and managed by the Department of Defense (DoD). It provides valuable insight into policy impacts. The Office of People Analytics published the 2020 Status of Forces Survey Reserve Component Members (SOFS-R) on July 14, 2021. The results highlight the challenge of maintaining readiness within the limited time allotted, given the various training requirements, administrative tasks, and leadership development programs. The SOFS-R report presents separate results for the Army National Guard (ARNG) and Air National Guard (ANG). However, for the sake of illustration, the following results focus only on ARNG.

• Traditional ARNG members spent 47 nights away from home due to military duty in the past year, not counting the days before and after out-of-town drills.

• 17% of Army National Guard members reported a decreased desire to stay in the military due to unexpectedly long absences.

• According to the recent report, the self-reported readiness of ARNG members is as follows:

  • 73% of ARNG component members reported being well prepared to perform their wartime job, while only 8% indicated being poorly prepared.

  • 67% of ARNG component members reported being well prepared to perform their wartime jobs because of their training, while 11% indicated being poorly prepared.

  • 59% of ARNG component members reported that their unit was well prepared to perform war-time missions, while 14% indicated being poorly prepared.

• Assuming that the ARNG member could stay in the military, 65% were likely to do so, and 22% were unlikely to.

• 67% of Army National Guard component members reported satisfaction with their military lifestyle, while only 12% reported dissatisfaction.

Pile on the Requirements

Achieving military readiness is complicated by many training requirements, which frequently result in uncompensated hours for National Guard soldiers—however, additional demands for PME further compound the concern. In addition to the extensive training commitments and operational responsibilities, soldiers must also fulfill PME requirements. These requirements encompass a range of educational programs and courses designed to enhance leadership skills, broaden professional knowledge, and prepare individuals for increased responsibilities within the military hierarchy.

Officers, warrant officers, and enlisted members of the National Guard undergo varied structured educational programs and training, or PME, throughout their careers to develop their leadership, management, and operational skills. By way of example only, below are the PME requirements for ARNG Legal Administrator Warrant Officers:

Army National Guard Warrant Officer Candidates (WOC) can attend either the Fort Novessel, Alabama resident course or the WOCS – RC at an ARNG Regional Training Institute, a three-phased course. Legal administrators aiming for CW2 must attend a four-week resident course in Charlottesville, Virginia. To reach CW3, soldiers must complete an 18-hour WOACC DL course followed by a four-week resident course. WOILE, a 5-week resident course at WOCC, is necessary for promotion to CW4. Lastly, the CW5 promotion requires completing the four-week WOSSE program after a DL component.

Incorporating PME into a demanding schedule further underscores Service members’ challenges in effectively balancing their duties and civilian careers.

Proposed Solutions

The current structure and time allocation of PME courses make it challenging for traditional National Guard members to fulfill all obligations effectively and on time, significantly hindering their career progression. Policymakers must recognize National Guard members’ unique constraints and obligations, such as balancing civilian careers, family responsibilities, and military duties. To address these challenges, policy leaders should revise PME courses to develop flexible options tailored to the schedules and needs of National Guard Members, including offering distance learning, weekend workshops, or more virtual training.

Policy leaders can look to two successful examples of other PMEs. The first example is from 2006, when the National Guard Bureau (NGB) and the Warrant Officer Career Center (WOCC) collaborated to develop a three-phase Warrant Officer Candidate School (WOCS) program for traditional guardsmen. Various Regional Training Institutes (RTIs) across the United States conduct this training.

Training policymakers can utilize RTI’s existing infrastructure nationwide to deliver PME courses for WOBC, WOAC, WOILE, and WOSEE, similar to WOCS. This approach can minimize the financial burden on the Department of Defense (DoD). Soldiers who prefer attending the traditional WOC at Fort Novosel School can still do so.

The second example is the introduction of virtual courses by the WOCC. These courses are accessible from anywhere, making it easier for National Guard soldiers to balance their military and civilian responsibilities. Additionally, it reduces the need for travel and accommodations, significantly decreasing the overall cost of training. Therefore, traditional National Guard soldiers should have priority in enrollment in virtual courses. The blueprint for this type of adjustment already exists and can be offered more.

A hybrid approach that combines traditional resident training with virtual components or phased approaches can effectively provide face-to-face instruction benefits while offering the flexibility that National Guard members require. It is important to note that soldiers who prefer to attend traditional courses should be allowed to do so.

By adopting these strategies, the National Guard can overcome PME challenges and ensure that its members have access to high-quality training that enhances their readiness and capabilities and will increase retention in a world where recruitment efforts face significant challenges.

Conclusion

The National Guard’s traditional members are crucial to our nation’s defense and security. The multi-faceted demands placed on National Guard soldiers require innovative approaches to maintain their readiness and ensure career progression. By leveraging flexible training options, embracing virtual platforms, and optimizing existing resources, the National Guard can enhance the capabilities of its soldiers and foster retention. Investing in the National Guard’s readiness means investing in our nation’s safety and security. Therefore, it is essential to prioritize the needs of Guard members in PME and training initiatives, ultimately leading to a more prepared and capable National Guard.

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