Guard balancing emerging roles in homeland defense.

• Author: Jean, Grace
• Position: NATIONAL GUARD

The National Guard continues to expand its missions in support of homeland defense, even as it contends with frequent overseas deployments, equipment shortages and low recruiting levels.

In response to the war on terror, the Guard has been forming special units trained for security missions in the homeland, with capabilities ranging from responding to attacks using weapons of mass destruction to gathering intelligence.

"Where the National Guard sees itself going in this whole thing is becoming a full-spectrum force with enhanced joint capabilities to do homeland defense and also support homeland security," said Col. Thomas Hook, chief of the National Guard Bureau's future operations division.

Guard units comprise more than half of the deployed forces in Iraq, with eight brigades on the ground.

"Any additional workload is tough ... when the Guard itself is being overused," said Michael O'Hanlon, senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution. "But frankly, when I look around at what the Guard's role is in homeland security, it's totally doable," because the required number of soldiers for such missions is modest.

One key challenge for the Guard is balancing homeland mission expansions with the needs of the states and the military.

During the National Governors Association annual meeting in Iowa in July, governors met behind closed doors with the National Guard Bureau's chief, Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, and several other federal officials. The governors questioned authorities about the Guard's structure and role, length of deployments and the availability of troops for state missions.

"There's a great deal of concern amongst a number of governors, out in the western states especially, that when they have a natural disaster, such as a fire, [the state] could have major requirements for the Guard being called up," said Governor Mark R. Warner, D-Va., who chaired the NGA annual meeting.

"General Blum has made a commitment to the governors that they will have, as much as possible, at least 50 percent of their Guard forces available at any given time within their state," said Hook.

But having 50 percent of the Guard forces available in each state is not always possible, he conceded. "Right now, some units are being mobilized on a more frequent basis primarily because of demands of missions overseas," he explained, which leaves some states short of their 50 percent. But, he says, one remedy is to facilitate the movement of Guard forces from one state to another under the emergency management assistance compact, a national disaster-relief agreement that was signed into law in 1996.

"I think states are more than happy to respond to other states in times of need," said Warner. "But if that's going to be the expected procedure, then that ought to be fully laid out."

At a recent military...