ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Pandemic-fueled learning loss, a shrinking pool of eligible young people and a generation that is less likely to have a personal connection to the military have combined to create an “unprecedented” recruiting season, the chief of the National Guard Bureau said. 

National Guard recruiters have described “just how difficult the current recruiting challenges are that they’re facing,” Gen. Daniel Hokanson said during a Sept. 20 media roundtable. “For many of them, it's unprecedented in their time as a recruiter.” 

The National Guard has “brought hope to America when it needed it the most,” the Army chief of staff said Aug. 27.

Speaking in Columbus, Ohio, before the National Guard Association of the United States’ General Conference and Exhibition, Gen. James McConville heaped praise on the Guard. The Regular Army doesn’t “go anywhere or do anything without the National Guard,” he said. “We cannot do what we do as an Army without the National Guard.”

The world keeps changing, but the in-depth analysis in a 2016 report whose main theme was the importance of harmony among the Army’s three components remains relevant, the authors of a new paper assert.

Faced with two nuclear-capable competitors in China and Russia, Army National Guard and Army Reserve forces must modernize to ensure readiness, the components’ leaders told lawmakers.

The Army National Guard expects to meet its recruiting goal this year, even though a senior official said the component has been grappling with many of the same challenges faced by the Regular Army and Army Reserve.

Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said the Army National Guard is “in a pretty good spot today … at about 99% strength” for the current recruiting year. 

Florida National Guard soldiers evacuated from Ukraine at the start of Russia’s invasion are now training Ukrainian troops on how to use American equipment.

The training is taking place in Germany, Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby said.