The National Guard really wants to grow. The latest budget is reducing their numbers
Meghann Myers
Five hundred soldiers is not a precipitous drop in personnel for a force of more than 440,000, but it’s definitely not what the National Guard would have preferred.
The White House’s budget proposal, released in May, would like the Army National Guard to drop from 336,500 to 336,000, while holding the Air National Guard at 108,300. This comes following a year in which more Guard troops were deployed than at any time since World War II, Army Gen. Dan Hokanson, the National Guard Bureau’s chief, told reporters on Wednesday.
“And so we look back at 2020, some states had a significant increase in the amount of [operational] tempo that they had previously had. And so they’ve asked for additional force structure,” Hokanson told Military Times. “Those decisions are made at the secretary of the Army and the secretary of the Air Force level. And of course, like all organizations, we would like to grow if possible.”
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2021/06/23/the-national-guard-really-wants-to-grow-the-latest-budget-is-reducing-their-numbers/
