National Guard chief: 'our weaknesses are here at home'.

• Author: Jean, Grace V.
• Position: HOMELAND DEFENSE - National Guard Bureau's Gen. Craig R. McKinley

The National Guard has never been as combat-ready as it is now. Yet, as deployments to Iraq are scaled back and eventually Afghanistan operations begin to draw down, the role of the Guard once again will become the subject of intense debate.

Critics have questioned whether the size of the Guard--at an all-time high of 476,500 Army and Air Guardsmen combined--should be reduced as defense budgets begin to tighten. Congressional supporters have argued that Guard strength should be maintained or even expanded, so it can handle homeland security missions that have been under-resourced because of war commitments.

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In all likelihood, there will be serious competition for resources among the services following the current operations, and the Guard may lose out to the active-duty forces, experts said.

"I would hope that as the war starts to wind down, the chief of the Guard Bureau and the secretaries of the services would sit down together without a food fight over resources and figure out what's best for the country," said retired Maj. Gen. Gus L. Hargett Jr., president of the National Guard Association of the United States. "Nothing will be more important than to get the size of the force right with the right capabilities in the right place."

Guard proponents argue that the nation's forefathers meant for the country to retain a smaller military force in peacetime with the capability to surge during wartime. "I think the Guard and reserve have proven they can do that," said Hargett. "What we should see at the end of this war is a Guard and reserve that is about the same as it is now ... or larger, and an active force that is a good deal smaller. It saves the country a lot of dollars."

As the debate unfolds, the Guard continues to support the war efforts with thousands of troops. The chief of the National Guard Bureau, Air Force Gen. Craig R. McKinley, is committing at least 55,000 to 60,000 Army Guardsmen, out of a force of 370,000, to overseas combat deployments for the foreseeable future. "That's a significant contribution when you know that we have to have some force in reserve here at home for the disasters that are going to occur," he said.

Balancing war and homeland duties is his priority, McKinley said in an interview in Virginia Beach, Va., during the Joint Warfighting Conference sponsored by AFCEA International and the U.S. Naval Institute. He is concerned about the U.S. economic downturn but he also worries that...