The U.S. Army National Guard, battered by its major role in the Iraq war, announced Thursday it would increase enlistment bonuses to attract new recruits and seek $20 billion to replace arms and equipment.
The commander of the Pentagon’s National Guard Bureau said it must replace equipment destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan or left there for other Guard troops, so that units would have enough equipment to also use at home in emergencies.
“Otherwise, the Guard will be broken and not ready the next time it’s needed, either here at home or for war,” Lt. Gen. Steven Blum said of the huge financial request to pay for replenishing arms and equipment over the next three years.
Blum told reporters the Army Guard had fallen short of recruiting to retain its 360,000 members over the past two months due in large measure to strains caused by Iraq.
He said the re-enlistment cash bonus would immediately be tripled from $5,000 to $15,000 to sign up for six years. The bonus for new enlistees will be boosted from $6,000 to $10,000 to join for six years.
“I think we’re in a more difficult recruiting environment,” Blum said. “There’s no question that when you have a sustained ground combat operation going that the guard’s participating in, that makes recruiting more difficult.”
“We are putting our money where our mouth is,” the general said, adding that in addition to seeking the arms funds as part of planned future military supplemental funding requests the guard was increasing recruiters by 1,400 to a total of 4,100 to entice new members from high schools and colleges.
Iraq strains More than one third of the 148,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq are National Guard or Army Reserve members.
Guard members and their families have complained that the Guard is operating with older equipment and that too many troops are called on repeatedly to go to Iraq and Afghanistan for at least a year of duty.
Traditionally, about half of the Army’s active duty members who leave that force have joined the Guard. But Blum said that figure had now dropped to 35 per cent and put increased pressure on recruiters of new Guard members to make up the difference.
Blum said that the Army Guard, which recently celebrated its 368th birthday, had evolved since the September 2001 attacks on the United States from a force used chiefly for flood and other disaster relief at home to a major part of the defense of America.
“We are correcting, frankly, some of our recruiting themes and slogans to reflect a reality of today,” he said.
“We’re not talking about one weekend a month, and two weeks (on duty) a year, and college tuition. We’re talking about service to the nation, we’re talking about answering the call to colors — a trained and ready force capable of operating both here at home and overseas.”
He said he was sure that that the recruiting effort would succeed and that goals would be met by August of next year.
“But we’re going to have to provide them incentive packages on a level playing field with the Army and Marines and the Army Reserve,” Blum said.