Are you aware that the Army intends to double the number of required training days for some National Guard units?

I think upping our drill days would be great as sometimes I feel like we (S2) finally just start becoming productive in whatever task we're working on by the end of drill. It takes time to set things out, a lot of us end up getting tasked for other things going on during drill weekend. But, if something were implemented where it was upped closer to 100 drill days, then that's ridiculous, we signed up for the NG, not active duty. We have full time jobs that we are committed to, that doesn't mean I'm any less committed to my Nation and State for the Guard but it does mean that I signed up with the understanding that I wouldn't have to take almost a 1/3 of the year off for drilling. Not to mention by adding that many drill days would mean that many would be consecutive, so on top of extra drill pay, many soldiers would be receiving a percentage of BAH as well.

If this happens, USERRA is gonna get a run for their money.....! :)

If the top "Brass" in DC and the Pentagon want to double the AT days for us Guardsmen then they should also increase our pay scale.

This will be hell on the SM civilian job schedule. If the SM is on a weekend rotation at their civilian job you are now taking two weeks worth of pay away a month. Maybe the military pay makes up for it maybe it doesn't either way it is going to be a budgetary hardship. And what employer is going to hire someone that will be missing that much work time? They have schedules to do also.

I read it was being talked about, but never saw anything that went beyond just talkng. Guard needs to go back to Citizen Soldiers, IMHO.

A lot of units are already in that 60-100 day band of training days (I know I’ve been there for a while now, actually).That’s not including schools, which seem to be getting longer and longer. It’s not hard to spend 4-6 months on orders or MUTAs anymore. Personally, I don’t mind because I like going to drill. The problem is retention. I have soldiers that just can’t do it anymore. USERA protects them, but it’s a huge burden on civilian employers. My troops all have jobs where their presence is needed too. I know this is the deal, but the job they do the rest of the month is what puts food on the table and they can’t go in multiple directions all the time. It’s getting harder for me to convince these guys it’s worth signing up for over and over again. They want a deployment and I don’t think they’re going to get it now. If the quality of training is there, the weekend a month/two weeks is sufficient. It seems now we get bogged down in online training, tasks that only apply to a certain part of a unit or even last minute FRAGOs that make it impossible to plan for training during white times. I’ve watched the Guard go from a bunch of fat beer-drinking weekend warriors before 9/11, to one hell of a fighting force that I’d go to war with again in a second. But there needs to be balance.

I think senior leaders need to to play part of "Undercover Boss" and see what really happens at many drill weekends and the paper work online requirements required that take up much of the time. It often seems only real training that happens is at AT and few drill weekends. The military is awful at efficiency many members hanging around while a few need to do certain things. I am not saying the Army should act more like a fortune 500 company (but in reality it is just very large business... different discussion for that). If I was consultant I would do test phase and pay members hourly just for a month to see how much time and money is wasted on labor hours not used properly or not used at all. Guarantee if we pay members hourly guarantee leadership would use the time much more efficiently. This goes for active duty and reserve components. The problem is that for so long we have thought of the military as this indefensible amount of free labor if it is a duty day we can keep you how long the "mission takes". Would any company anywhere, have 30% - 70% of their work force " hang out" while others who can only take care of matters NCOERS, packets, admin agenda etc can take care of. I will take away the first variable and although an important one that most leaders automatically refer to... well it is great opportunity for "hip pocket" training. Not what is their responses? The Army like any other business is constantly trying to manage resources (money and time). Unfortunately, everyone senior leaders and private snuffy are quick to say we just need more of both to make things happen. I say yes but to an extent. Invest in in research, do case studies what makes one Company better prepared than another. What are they doing with their time? Money? How do they reward and discipline? Now take that information and infuse it and become more efficient and streamline, from the bottom up. I know some companies have super MUTA where they have more 8 day drills where training can be completed and then muta drills then next drill for paperwork.

Reserve components can be an amazing asset becasue of what a solider can bring from their civilian lives. I think the lines need to be blurred more when it comes to rank in the reserve component because of this experience. I think its great if CPT/1SG has risen through the ranks but if someone decides to join the military later and life and doesn't have military experience but has wealth of knowledge consulting, managing and owning a business, managing assets and people, then that should be incorporated. I have seen some amazing reservists with very impressive resumes on the civilians not being used to their potential because of rank.

To circle this around. Should we increase days? Yes but not without making the time we currently have more efficient. It will demotivate solider to all time to have come in more and just do more the horrible and wait thing for much of the drill weekend. Offer pay to do online training at home, we work training schedules, loosen admin demands on reserve forces. Make it flexible to have soldiers to come int the armory to make do additional online training's and paperwork. Lets work smarter not harder is what I say.

MAJ Alvin B. I think this is a good idea Guard and Reserve Units have difficulty in compressing all the training tasks and maintenance into two days per month. I know even adding one day for a Friday departure to a training sight is difficult for some and I wonder what it will do to retention numbers.

I don't believe it's the right way because the States have a small budget, Second you have soldiers spending hours and hours on a computer for a class thats pointless when what we should be doing is training our future soldiers with hands on training as we did back 20 , 30 years ago.
A soldier has a MOS and their not doing anything with it , 12W should be building things, take them apart and rebuild it again.
12B should be in the field doing training over and over again on how to be more professional at that job.
What we have is States telling her soldiers is we don't have the funds.
Training soldiers for a hundred days out of the year is just tossing money down the drain when the Guards don't even have the funds.

Allowing guard troops to stay in active component housing and giving them bas could be used to offset possible civilian employment difficulties. A large proponent of a persons income goes to housing, utilities and food. Allowing extra training opportunities by becoming a IMA based force compared to a tpu based one would also allow quicker integration between components.