Photo By Master Sgt. Jim Greenhill | Sheila Casey and her husband, Army Gen. George Casey, the chief of staff of the Army,...... read more read more
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NEW ORLEANS -- Putting the National Guard back on the Cold War-era strategic reserve shelf is not the answer when Defense leaders discuss the future, the Army’s chief of staff said here, Aug. 3.
“No one wants to go back to the Guard being just a strategic reserve,” Army Gen. George Casey said during a visit to the 2010 National Guard Family Program Volunteer Workshop. “We have come way too far.
“Half of the Guard are combat veterans. That’s a fundamentally different force and, as a result, it’s a fundamentally different Army.
“We are actively working through a study that will answer the question for us: ‘What should the role of the Guard and Reserve be in an era where we’re likely to have to rely on them continuously for a long period of time?’”
The United States is in an era of persistent conflict, and Casey said he anticipates a significant operational tempo for the next decade.
That follows nine years of war in which the National Guard has already played a crucial role.
“We – the United States Army – could not have done what we have done the last nine years at war without the Guard,” Casey said. “It’s Minutemen and –women that are holding this force together. Thank you for what you have done to support this Army and this country.”
The general and his wife, Sheila Casey, spent about two hours talking with volunteers who support National Guard families. An event scheduled in the same room was cancelled as the couple lingered an hour beyond their planned visit to address questions from a standing-room-only audience of Guard family members.
“It’s not just the Guard families,” Casey said. “It’s the entire volunteer force. We realized back in 2007 that we had to significantly increase what we were doing for all Army families, because of what we were asking of them. We were asking of them far more than what our programs were delivering.”
Spending on family programs doubled. An Army covenant recommitted leadership to supporting Active, Guard and Reserve families.
“There’s always more work to do, but I think it’s been very well-received,” Casey said.
The Caseys have a non-commissioned officer son on active duty with the Army Reserve, making Sheila Casey both a Soldier’s wife and a Soldier’s mother. Meeting with volunteers who she can relate to not just through empathy but by first-hand experience, she emphasized self-care.
“Part of the problem that caregivers have is that they don’t take care of themselves,” she said. “Everybody else comes first. What I end up seeing is people who after extended deployments … are burnt out and they’re tired.
“What I ask them to do is to change that and to start putting themselves first, on top of the pile. If they do that, then they will have the strength and the wherewithal to take care of their families.”
Sheila Casey tells military spouses to find one thing that they love to do that is just for themselves and take the time to do that.
Her husband briefed Guard family program volunteers on the Guard’s transformed role since Sept. 11, 2001, and Defense Department leaders’ goals for a future of more predictable deployments and longer dwell times.
Standing in front of a chronological chart displaying the Guard’s contributions in the more than 60 years since World War II, Casey explained how a decision made from lessons learned from the Vietnam War transformed the Guard.
“The general conventional wisdom coming out of that period was the fact that we had to rely on the draft and could not rely on the Guard and Reserve broke the active Army,” Casey said. “That’s too simplistic … but … that led [to] the Total Force policy and they said, ‘We will never again go to war without the Guard and Reserve.’”
The Guard’s role increased following Operation Desert Storm and notably shifted in the days after the 9/11 attacks, and it has not diminished since.
“From Desert Storm, there has been relatively consistent reliance on the Guard and Reserve,” Casey said. “Since Sept. 11th, we have relied on the Guard and Reserve for a duration and a scope that really has been unprecedented in the last 60 years.
“We are pretty close to being one Army. We have purposely integrated the Guard into everything that we do.
“We have made a huge change with the Guard over the last nine years. … None of us want to go back to having the Guard as just a strategic reserve.”
| Date Taken: | 08.03.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 08.03.2010 16:30 |
| Story ID: | 53913 |
| Location: | NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 121 |
| Downloads: | 109 |
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