National Guard leaders expect furloughs to erode readiness

National Guard leaders expect furloughs to erode readiness
Omaha.com
By Steve Liewer
World-Herald staff writer
July 15, 2013

Picture your average Defense Department employee furloughed this week by the government sequester. You probably have in mind someone in a skirt or slacks, not camouflage and boots.

Which is why it's something of a surprise that 1,100 uniformed members of the Iowa National Guard and 580 from the Nebraska Guard are among 48,300 Guard employees nationally who are idled by the furloughs.

The workers are called dual-status military technicians. They are full-time federal employees and members of the units they serve. Their jobs are to organize, administer, train and maintain the Guard forces so the units are ready for short-notice call-up if there is a disaster or war.

“Somebody's got to be in to keep the lights on and be ready when the traditional Guard comes in to drill,” said Rick Breitenfeldt, a Nebraska native who is now a spokesman for the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C. “They're the people who are there, for the most part, day in and day out.”
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