ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The number of National Guard soldiers on duty each month in support of the COVID-19 response has begun to go down, and as the pandemic wanes, the mission will end, the director of the Army National Guard said.

“At some point, we’re going to leave a COVID-19 environment,” Lt. Gen. Jon Jensen said Feb. 22 during a webinar hosted by the Center for a New American Security. “If you take that [mission] off our plate right now, that would reduce our operational tempo by a factor of about 15,000 soldiers a month.”

More than 15,200 members of the National Guard are on duty in 49 states and territories in support of the burgeoning COVID-19 response, running testing sites, managing nonclinical hospital tasks and augmenting medical staff.

In Ohio, close to 2,500 Guard members are deployed, the largest number of soldiers and airmen supporting the COVID-19 mission in any of the U.S. states and territories, said Maj. Gen. John Harris, the state’s adjutant general.

As part of an ongoing effort to improve service members’ quality of life, a plan is in the works to allow some National Guard troops assigned to national-level positions to telework from their home states.

Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said an operational team has been working on the telework plan “for a couple of months” and should have a solution early next year.

National Guard troops in Kentucky have been going from door to door in tornado-damaged areas over the weekend.

“The damage is devastating,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said at a press conference Dec. 12. His state appears to have been the hardest hit by a string of tornados that tore through several states on Dec. 10. “There is no lens big enough to tell you the extent of the damage.”

In the past 18 months, as the U.S. weathered natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic and unrest, community trust in the National Guard played a vital role in the component’s service, the senior enlisted leader for the Army National Guard said. 

The senior enlisted leader for the Army National Guard is the featured speaker at a Nov. 10 webinar hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army.

Command Sgt. Maj. John Sampa, who has been in the job since February 2018, will speak as part of The AUSA Noon Report series. The event will begin at noon Eastern. It is free, but registration is required here.

Despite the Army National Guard’s visible role in responding to domestic missions, it’s “incredibly important” that the component continues to be the combat arms reserve for the Regular Army, no matter where in the world soldiers are needed, the component’s top officer said.

The National Guard and Army Reserve are stepping up efforts to tackle the most pressing mental health care issues facing their soldiers. 

As the Army modernizes and readies itself against future threats, the National Guard will continue to be “indispensable,” Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Joseph Martin said.

“I've been around the block a few times, and I've served with National Guard service members [on] multiple occasions,” Martin said. “So, I hope you believe me when I say that based on my experiences, I consider you to be indispensable.”