September 11 remember the National Guards

The news carries a lot of reports on September 11th but it is important that we start paying more attention to the National Guards and Reservists. Here are a few facts.

National Guards since 2001 Posture Statement 2014
Over the past decade, Guard members have deployed more than 750,000 times in support of operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, the Sinai, the Horn of Africa, and other locations across the globe. Our nation has invested tens of billions of dollars in the National Guard and it has yielded a return that has produced one of the best trained, best equipped dual-mission forces in our 376-year history. The National Guard also blends military and civilian skills, including substantial untapped cyber expertise well-suited to understanding and working in an increasingly complex global environment.

Battle Ready
Since 9/11, National Guard Citizen Soldiers and Airmen have been mobilized by the Army and Air Force more than 750,000 times in support of the overseas missions, some multiple times. This does not include hundreds of thousands called up during that same period by their states for emergency response.

Over 115,000 former and current Army National Guard Soldiers have mobilized more than once since 9/11.

Air Guardsmen filled over 56,000 Air Force manpower requests in FY12. Nearly 90 percent of those were voluntary.

More than 19,500 Air Guardsmen deployed to more than 60 countries and every continent last year.

Since 9/11, the Air National Guard has deployed almost 250,000 Airmen, including over 185,475 who have served in support of overseas contingency operations, 42,000 of which have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Since 9/11, our Air Guard has flown some 290,900 sorties and over 951,220 flying hours in support of overseas contingency operations.

Since 2001, the Air National Guard has flown more than 5,050 sorties and logged more than 8,000 flying hours intercepting air threats to America in support of the Aerospace Control Alert mission.

The Air Guard provided the great majority of fighter-bombers that deployed to Afghanistan during FY12, 70% of all A-10Cs and 85% of the F-16s.

Army Guard fixed-wing crews logged 48,000 flight hours (6,000 8-hour days) hauling more than 60,000 passengers and 2 million pounds of time-sensitive and mission-critical supplies to Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, and the Horn of Africa in FY12. Nearly half of current Army Guard Soldiers are seasoned combat veterans, many with multiple overseas deployments.

Eager to serve, Army Guard retention is at 99%.

Eighty percent of our Guardsmen have joined since 9/11.

America’s investment in upgrading the National Guard to an operational force has produced Soldiers and Airmen with training and capabilities that mirror the active component.

An experienced, equipped, and trained National Guard provides the nation a cost-effective force proven on the battle field and unequalled in domestic response.

Why National Guard and Reservist Suicide Numbers May Be Misleading
New York Times
By ANDREW W. LEHREN
May 16, 2013

One aspect of suicide statistics that is often overlooked – in large part because it’s so hard to quantify – is the number of National Guard and Reserve members of the various branches of the armed service who commit suicide when they are not on active duty.

Army Guard members and reservists appear to have higher suicide rates than active-duty soldiers, according to research and published Pentagon reports. These numbers, which are already escalating well above comparable civilian levels, may also be undercounting the problem by not counting all the National Guard members and reservists who are not on active duty, some experts say. That is because those deaths are often handled by local coroners who may not document that they involve members of the military.

“The Reserve does not get the same kind of data as the active Army,” said James Griffith, a researcher recently retired from the Army National Guard. Because the data is not kept as carefully, Guard and Reserve suicide totals are undercounted, he said.