Tension between National Guard and Active Duty Army?

I was in the Arkansas National Guard before joining the Marines. The statement is true about the Guard being inferior to the regular Army, but in some respects, they were superior, When I joined the Guard in 1963, there was a wealth of WW11 Vets still active. They had all this experience of a combat veteran, some even had multiple awards, silver stars, Brone stars, Purple Hearts galore. Being of Arkansas decent they were skilled hunters, able to shoot the eye out of a Nat, (spelling?) So, from the prospective of once Guardsman, Don't sell these guys short. Even today, Reservist are mostly combat veterans, once active duty.

Howdy all. Tension is built by leadership whenever they define something as different from them or their unit. One type of unit always belittles another type of unit or is trained to respect that other unit as more special then them. We also are taught by our leaders to judge others accomplishments. We are taught by our senior NCOs that people who barely pass a PT test are bad and 100%s are good. This is the culture of the military. It sets a hierarchy of confidence. Same as a Boxer or MMA fighter going into the ring. A positive perception of themselves can bring a mental victory that may be the slight edge to wining a bout. Same with the military. We are trained and practice to “think” we are better then the enemy. Better equipped, better trained. That edge may make contribute to a decisive victory.
I’ve been in the Guard, 39 years, much of it full time. 7 overseas deployments, and I travel an average of 100 days a year. Somewhere I was told just one weekend a month and two weeks a year.

I am a Wet Point Grad who flew F4s. Helped a unit transition to that jet got off active duty and stayed for 11 more years. The Air Guard was a superb way to keep Fighter Pilots current in case we were needed. As Col Roach also mentioned our Drs, Heavy Equipment operators, Electricians, Carpenters, Cops and Cooks all did their tasks professionally outside of their service. Lots of quality performers who out performed their active duty counterparts not because they were Guardsmen but because they were professionals in their jobs and didn’t need to rotate out their positions or be relocated so the teamwork was even better.

I was in the National Guard for (1) year. I was behind (2) soldiers and overheard them talking to each other. This was 1979 and Russia just invaded Afghanistan. I heard them say if we got activated they would take off for Canada. I remember thinking what if they don't make it to Canada and I get stuckin combat with these yahoos. When my year was up I relocated from NJ to Los Angeles. Never looked back. 50th AD military police. I had already done a tour in Vietnam. I just didn't need to be in combat with people I could not trust.

I also wonder why the tension, considering, if you properllist the national guard with its' proper name; Army national Guard. Sadly some time ago, the Army itself segregated themselves from the active duty(this went up the chain pretty high. If u were Guard u were treated as 2nd class members. When and where u went, since u were Guard. Funny thing, u had to have the same classes required for your future advancement in the army.
I will add this. That is unchanging for the better.

All things considered, I believe that the NG did very well most of the time during the GWOT. They were more well rounded as individuals, and were better able to handle the mental aspects of deployment to truly s____y places. Their civilian occupations also brought unexpected bonuses to the requirements of making do. Their age may have slowed them down a little, but most battlefield evolutions don't need to be done at the speed of light. Except in certain COIN missions, they stayed ahead of the power curve provided their leadership allowed them to get there in the first place.

i served in both each has their up and down i liked both, when i was on active duty i talked about the guard and i talked about active duty ups and downs neither one better than the other

It's hard to discuss any "tension" between the Active Army and the National Guard because the relationship takes so many different forms and exists in different ways at different levels.

Most of the time, the Active Army underestimates the National Guard -- sometimes this is the "good natured ribbing" that others have mentioned, other times it can be a serious problem.

Overall I'd say that most of the National Guard was significantly less Combat Ready than most of the Active Army -- as well they should be!

Even within the Active Army we have units that are supposed to be at different levels of readiness, but even the lowest level expected of the Active Army is supposed to be above the level expected of the National Guard. Active Army units train about 50 weeks each year -- National Guard units train the roughly 5 weeks each year -- and about half the NG training time is taken up by mandatory training completely irrelevant to the unit METL.

Most National Guard equipment is literally used Active Army hand-me-downs.

The Active Army has always been content to consider the National Guard as the second string team - and most National Guard units have been willing to accept that status. A few National Guard units would strive for excellence, some would be content to live down to the Active Army expectations.

Then came GWOT that screwed up the entire status quo. Actually the turmoil began a little before GWOT officially started. Here on RP we undoubtedly have quite a few who recall when Iraq invaded Kuwait. The first thing that Pentagon Planners did was run to their book shelves, grab the CAPSTONE manual, and dump it in the trash. The US Order of Battle for ODS had less to do with readiness and more to do with which commanders needed their tickets punched for advancement (no one expected there to be another opportunity to get some 'combat time'). The pentagon refusal to use the National Guard units that were part of the "Rapid Deployment Force - Heavy" sent a clear message to the National Guard that readiness didn't matter.

Then, just a few years later, the OPTEMPO of the never-ending GWOT left the Active Army barely capable of maintaining even the pretense of readiness, suddenly National Guard units were welcome to deploy.

About that same time, the Active Army leadership decided that all brigades were interchangeable, resulting in every combat arms brigade acting as HMMWV Infantry and forcing skills like reconnaissance and tank gunnery below the line in the unit METL. One by-product of this (besides the loss of irreplaceable skills in POG combat arms units) was that suddenly several national and international military competitions were won by National Guard units -- OMG! Heresy!! How dare a bunch of weekend warriors think they could even compete, much less win, against Active Army units?

Name one difference between any two units NG Reserve active duty or any combination. It's what the military does. If you weren't in my squad you had some issue I was going to give you crap about. It is simply what was done. At the sametime if you were a marine ( I was a soldier)and I saw a civilian starting something with you I would jump in to back you. It's a really strange world all its own but it's definitely worth the price of admission. To this day I enjoy giving my VSO a marine a hard time.

As your Bro. Brownbear, you were blessed to have served on active duty and national guard. We who love you, don't care what others may say! But remember this always, our enemies are reading these comments/responses and trying their best to divide us! which will backfire on them! St. Mark 3: 24 - 27.