“The tradition of the citizen-soldier flows deeply through our American heritage,” the Army’s vice chief of staff told more than 100 attendees at a special dinner meeting of Army and Air National Guard and Army Reserve officials before the formal opening of the Association of the United States Army’s Annual Meeting.

Gen. Richard Cody said, “At no other time has the guard and reserve played such a decisive role” in military operations in the Global War On Terrorism and disaster relief in the wake of two hurricanes that ravaged the Gulf Coast in August and September.

“We’ve got to deal with this fight and transform,” he told the more than 100 attendees at the 7th annual dinner

For guard and reserve soldiers being mobilized, Cody said, “They deserve the very best equipment” through its repaid fielding initiative. He added that the current spending on equipment, which he estimated at about $15 million a brigade, is buying back cuts that were made years back.

“We’re moving to a more scalable unit” with three kinds of brigades – light, heavy and Stryker. “We’ve got to get across the board a more modular formation” as the Army adds 30,000 soldiers and raises the number of brigades in the active force from 33 to 43. "The modular structure will give us that flexibility.”

For soldiers in the Louisiana and Mississippi guard and reserve units in those states who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, Cody said they are being offered the opportunity to stay on active duty and live in quarters on Fort Polk, La. “We’re going to take care of our own.”

He said that recruiting remains a challenge, but retention has remained strong. “When America has a problem, who does it call? Its Army. We have to maintain that trust with the American people.”