we currently have 29,000 army national guard soldiers mobilized. last year in fy-'11, 45,000 army national guardsmen were deployed in support of ongoing missions around the world. as an operational force, the army national guard provides a cost-effective solution to meet the new strategic guidance. for 12.43% of the army's budget, the army national guard provides 39% of the army's operating forces. our soldiers represent nearly every zip code in the nation. they play a vital role as the department of defense first responder for natural disasters and terrorist attacks on our soil. today's army national guard soldiers continue the pride tradition of service to their states and to our nation. in 2011 alone, it was the citizen soldiers who provided 900,000 duty days of support across our nation. that's the second largest domestic response since 9/11. since hurricane katrina. we are attracting skilled soldiers and future leaders. with the nation at war as a backdrop, our year to date enlistment rate for fy-'12 is in excess of 95%. but our retention rate

your guard airmen continue to make significant contributions to the nation's defense both here and home and around the globe. last year guard airmen filled 54,000 requests for manpower. 91% of these requests were filled by volunteers. international guards responsiveness and daptablity was clearly demonstrated a year ago when on 17, march, 2011, as the united nations security council passed resolution 1973 authorizing a no fly zone over libya, air national guard kc 135 in tennessee and the 168th aerial refuelling wing alaska were diverted en route to florida operating bases. these guard airmen began flying missions 48 hours later. clearly demonstrating that the international guard is accessible and ready to serve. last year national guard airmen spent half a million men days providing support missions. this included ordinance disposaling helping with security at special events. and helping victims of floods and other natural disasters and helping to save lives by assisting in search and rescue efforts. guard airmen spent an additional million man days in homeland defense. this included h

as part-time force, the national guard is a proven, affordable defense option for america. during a time of constrained budgets, we should be continue to be used as an operational force to ensure the nation is getting the most defense capability at the lowest cost. as an operational force, the national guard is ideally suited to meet the new strategic guidance, to meet steady state demands and act as a strategic head for unforeseen world events. at any time the national guard can and will augment the active duty, both the army and the air force to surge and regenerate forces. the nation also counts on the national guard to protect the homeland. your home states, commonwealths, territories and the district of columbia. the national guard is the best and primary military force to respond to complex catastrophes and contributes to our security by protecting our airspace and borders. while representing only a small portion of the guards' response capability, last year federal and state authorities called on one of our 57 civil support teams to use their unique weapons of mass de

and the fact that the teams that the army national guard sponsors do some very, very good things for the nation and are held in high esteem by that group of people, it leads to recruits for the army national guard. >> well, mr. chairman, i would hope that we wouldn't micromanage that process, let the guard decide how best to utilize whatever we give them for the branding, for the recruiting and so forth. i think attempts to say do this and put on that commercial or that commercial and pud it on v put it on this car and not that car ought to be left up to the people who are involved in that process. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. now i would like to recognize the chairman of the senate national guard caucus, senator leahy. >> thank you. general, i noticed yesterday we saw in the news where a plane diverted had to be -- commercial jet had to land in bangor. it was on its way to charlotte. fighter jets were deployed. were those guard jets? >> yes, senator, they were. >> well, that sort of leads into a question i have. there's a couple of lesser-known cuts. not lesser cuts but les

as a part-time force, the national guard is a proven affordable defense option for america. during a time of constrained budgets, we should continue to be used as an operational force to ensure the nation is getting the most effective capability at the lowest cost. as an operational force, the national guard is suited to meet the new strategic guidance, to meet city and state demands and act as a strategic head for unforeseen world events. at any time, the national guard can and will augment the active duty, but the army and air force, to surge and regenerate forces. the nation also count on the national guard to protect the homeland. your home state,, well, territories, and the district of columbia. the national guard is the best and primary military force to respond to complex catastrophes and contribute to our security by protecting our airspace and borders. while representing only a small portion of the guards response capability, last year federal and state authorities called on one of our 57 civil support teams to use their unique weapons of mass destruction assessment

now i would like to recognize the chairman of the senate national guard caucus. senator leahy. >> thank you. yesterday we saw on the news a plane had to be landed on its way to charlotte. were those guard jets? >> yes, senator, they were. >> that sort of leads into a question i have. there's a couple of lesser known cuts. not lesser known but lesser cuts proposed to the air national guard and issues that concern me deeply. specifically cuts to air control alert locations. air national guard explosive ordnance. the air controller. i think it's safe to say from everything we have learned without going into anything we get, it's safe to say that commercial airlines are still a target of terrorists. is that not a fair statement? >> that's correct, senator. our strategy for dealing with threats to the united states have changed. and that's would drive reductions. but i worry that we're just seeing a budget cut, i don't see the threat going out. i think we should have our air control alert locations. it looks like they just handed you a bill to pay, and then you had to

national guard. an automatic five under million dollars goes into effect in january unless congress changes the law. -- an automatic $500 million goes into effect. michelle obama will be joining president obama on the campaign trail today. we'll have live coverage of today's stop in dubuque, iowa. the president travels to davenport and we will have that live, as well. the republican party has released more details about their convention at the end of august. the first day will be the longest with the convicted gaveling in at 2:00 p.m. eastern and lasting through the evening and wrapping up around 11:00 p.m. we will have live coverage of every minute of the republican and democratic conventions here on c-span. >> now the soviet bear may be gone but there are still wolves in the woods and we saw that when saddam hussein invaded kuwait. the mideast might have become a nuclear powder keg. our energy supplies held hostage. what was necessary. we destroyed a threat, freed a people, and locked a tyrant in t

the director of the army national guard, general ingram, and the director of the air national guard guard, general wyatt. our witnesses from the reserve include the chief of the armory reserve, general stults, the chief of the navy reserve, admiral dirk debbing, the commander of the marine corps reserve, general stephen hummer, and the chief of the air force reserve, general charles stenner. and i'd like to thank you all for joining us today. as the committee reviews the budget for the reserve components. this year's budget proposal significant force structure changes for the air national guard, reducing end strength bill 5100 bullets and aircraft inventory by 134 aircraft. this proposal has come under intense scrutiny from the members of congress, the council of governors, and maniage utant generals and i'd like to hear from you on how involved you were in the deliberative process that preceded the force structure announcement and what input you were asked to give. >> in addition over the last several years, the guard and reserve have made important changes as their transition from a str

that was the initial deployment of national guard forces along the southwest border. we have roughly 6000 national guardsmen deployed over a two- border. we spent a lot of time together, steve and i, discussing the rules of the use of force and everything and what status the national guard would have during that order of deployment. my recollection is became to the conclusion the guard would be entitled 32 status. that's the middle ground where gubernatorial command and control would be exercised over those forces but dod funding would pay for those forces. it hasin general answer to your question, the type of funding used to pay for the national guard forces, traditionally along the southwest border, would be adversely impacted by sequestration. >> a think that is an accurate answer. just to give you a little bit more, the unintended consequence would be -- dod would be faced with less money than it would normally have to do that but mission. eightit was painful to dod to do it when we were better- resourced. but it createit created frankly great thank you to -- great

the fact that the teams that the army national guard sponsors do some very, very good things for the nation and they're held in high esteem by that group of people it does lead to recruits for the army national guard. >> mr. chairman, i would hope that we wouldn't micro manage that process. let the guard decide how best to utilize whatever we give them for the branding for the recruiting and so forth. i think it attempts to say do this and put on this commercial ought to be left up to the people who are involved in the process and that those of us who have a preference. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. and now i'd like to recognize the chairman of the senate national guard caucus senator leahy. >> thank you. general wyatt, i noticed yesterday we saw on the news where a plane diverted -- had to be commercial jet had to land in bangor on its way to charlotte. it said fighter jets were deployed. were those guard jets? >> yes, senator they were. >> so that leads into a question i have. there's a couple lesser known cuts proposed for the air national guard that concern me deeply. i t

feeling that they weren't going to hire him because on his resume he has put on there the army national guard. he thought they were more afraid of him being deployed again. >> now, the soldiers of the 877th are facing a new mission, employment. >> coming home as a guard soldier, unless you have a job already secured before you left, you're on a manhunt. >> they call him grandpa. at 41, sergeant chris wylie has managed restaurants and small businesses. he's been a tank instructor and supervised a platoon of 50 soldiers. >> i've had a lot of experience before the military. a lot of management experience. i have three children, one granddaughter. one daughter is in college. my other daughter is still at home. >> i have a wife and two kids to take care of. this actually makes it seem like the easy time here. i got a steady check coming in, know what i can count on. now i have to go home and wonder who's going to put me to work. >> we're almost there. >> all right. we're back. >> all right! that's what i like right there. >> great job, buddy. great job. >> second tour is done. >> iraq, afghanistan

that was the initial deployment of national guard forces along the southwest border. ave roughly 6000 national guardsmen deployed over a two- year period along the southwest border. we spend a lot of time together, stephen drive, discussing the rules of the use of force and everything and what status the national guard would have during that order of deployment. my recollection is became to the conclusion the guard would be entitled 32 status. that's the middle ground where gubernatorial command and control would be exercised over those forces but dodpay for tho. in general answer to your question, the type of funding used to pay for the national guard forces, traditionally along the southwest bodborder, would be adversely impacted by sequestration. >> a think that is an accurate answer. just to give you a little bit more, the unintended consequence would be -- dod would be faced with less money than it would normally have to do that mission. it was painful to dod to do it when we were better-resourced. it created frankly great thank you to -- great angst. where were t

that was the initial deployment of national guard forces along the southwest border. we have roughly 6000 national guardsmen deployed over a two- year period along the southwest border. steve was chief of the national guards bureau. we spent a lot of time together, steve and i, discussing the rules of the use of force and everything and what status the national guard would have during that order of deployment. my recollection is became to the -- is we came to the conclusion the guard would be entitled 32 status. that's the middle ground where gubernatorial command and control would be exercised over those forces but dod funding would pay for those forces. the type of funding used to pay for in general answer to your question, the type of funding used to pay for the national guard forces, traditionally along the southwest border, would be adversely impacted by sequestration. >> a think that is an accurate answer. just to give you a little bit more, the unintended consequence would be -- dod would be faced with less money than it would normally have to do that mission. i

it's not just the air guard it's the national aviation as well. e look a disasters be as critical, and i will give you one example and the department of defense not just the guard. when we did the exercise last year for the earthquake it became readily apparent that one of our concerns would be the isolation of the population areas due to failures of infrastructure by the event of the earthquake. you face very similar threats to some of your basis. traditionally we have been looking at transport aircraft that can operate limited capability short takeoff and ability to fly adverse conditions. when the guard has had these capabilities organic to them, you are able to call the resources up or get them from the emergency management contact rapidly to move those resources. if that capability isn't there it will then be turning to active duty and potentially reserve units. fewer resources spread out upon more participants. we will still be able to mobilize the response. the question is what have the speed and the capacity that is currently present in the

public health service, detailed with the national guard bureau, arlington, va; hector zayas, recovery coach and consultant, orlando, fl; dr. bradley karlin, national mental health director for psychotherapy and psychogeriatrics, office of mental health services, department of veterans affairs headquarters, washington, dc. kathryn, more than 2 million troops deployed to afghanistan and iraq. what are some of the behavioral health issues related to the returning vets that are there, the vets that are there, and the returning vets? i think all of us are paying great attention to the behavioral health issues of anyone who has been in combat. and, first of all, when we use the term "behavioral health," we generally are talking about a broad range of mental and emotional and substance abuse disorders and/or problems. we know that anyone who has been in combat will probably suffer from trauma and anyone who has been in a combat situation will have effects of that trauma. so, the first thing we really want to pay attention to is: how have the individuals who have served in combat absorbed tha

host: we have some facts and figures regarding the army national guard be cut from the guard. ere are 358 army national guardsmen across the 50 states in the territories. the army national guard has been mentioned is the largest of the seven military reserve components. the army and air national guard are under the command of the state governor, except when mobilized for missions when overseas. they're under the command of the president. talk to us about the mobilization for the mission. a lot of times, we see national guard troops serving in situations that have to do with national disasters. to make that decision? the governor? does that come from washington? guest: the governor. the first responders who are most -- emergency management is part of the state. as members of the national guard, we work for the governors. their commanders inside the state. we are a research -- resource that is available to them. typically, working for the department of emergency management in that state. we are never in command or control operations inside the state. host: we are talking with lie

as a part-time force, the national guard is a proven, affordable defense option. ime of constrained budgets, we should continue to be used as an operational force to insure the nation is getting the most defense capability at the lowest cost. the national guard is ideally suited to meet the new strategic islands, to meet demands, and to act as a strategic hedge for unforeseen world events. at any time, the national guard can and will augment to active duty to search and regenerate forces. the nation also counts on the national guard to protect the homeland. your home state,, well territories, and the district of columbia. the national guard is the best and a primary military force to respond to complex catastrophes and protect our airspace and borders. while representing only a small portion of the guard's response capability, last year federal and state authorities called on at one of our 57 civil support teams to use their unique weapons of mass destruction assessment skills twice a day every day in our hometown. the national guard is crucial to our governors. gu

but i think that we have permanently injured the ability of national guard -- the national guard to get employment in our country. by the way, we have made these changes. and i don't think they were well thought out. i get it. we didn't have enough boots. we had to do it because our ground force wasn't big enough. but what i don't think they anticipated, that there was going to be this problem. and i think it's one of the reasons that we've had some of the problems with suicides and some of the other issues that we're seeing in our military. what would you recommend that we could do short of convincing our military leadership that they need to go back to the old way in terms of utilizing the guard and the reserve? what could we do that could help this problem? >> well, ma'am, i mean, you really hit on the big crux of the matter, that the national guard and the reserves have been used in unprecedented fashion in the conflicts in iraq and afghanistan. they've been used as an operational reserve. and i know that in briefings that i've been to at the pentagon the army has talked about their

that was the initial deployment of national guard forces along the southwest border. we have roughly 6000 national guardsmen deployed over a two- year period along the southwest border. we spend a lot of time together, stephen drive, discussing the rules of the use of force and everything and what status the national guard would have during that order of deployment. my recollection is became to the conclusion the guard would be entitled 32 status. that's the middle ground where gubernatorial command and control would be exercised over those forces but dodpay for tho. in general answer to your question, the type of funding used to pay for the national guard forces, traditionally along the southwest bodborder, would be adversely impacted by sequestration. >> a think that is an accurate answer. just to give you a little bit more, the unintended consequence would be -- dod would be faced with less money than it would normally have to do that mission. it was painful to dod to do it when we were better-resourced. it created frankly great thank you to -- great angst. where we

air national guard explosive

that's still important, in the national guard. i think our younger generation is doing a better job of sharing their stories, but clearly, we have put our directors of psychological health outside of the medical community, because we didn't want or believe that someone would seek assistance from someone who is going to determine whether they were fit for duty. and we wanted to take that component away. otherwise, we'd be forcing them underground, so to speak. and, it's important, and i think because we put our directors of psychological health in places where yellow ribbon, transition assistance, is available, they become part of a larger team in the national guard, to support both our airmen and soldiers. the wonderful thing the department of defense has done, i just want to acknowledge, is develop the battlemind program. and i would encourage individuals to check out this wonderful resource. the battlemind program is accessible through the internet, and it's individuals who served in military, talking about their experiences, ta

given the bias against hiring national guard members due to the call-up policy national guard members have problems maintaining a continuum of service with a civilian employer. additionally, since the national guard component member belongs to the state and reports to the governor of a state, or a territory, the national guard personnel are used for local emergencies such as flooding and hurricanes, security, whatever. for example, the national guard in georgia, which is where we're headquartered, has had six one-year plus call-ups in the last ten years. now that makes it really hard to keep a job, even if you're only on three of them. many studies have found that due to the constant call-ups, employers shy away from hiring active members of the national guard and reserves. business law review, all have done studies that show upwards of 70% of employers will not now hire as a new employee an active member of the national guard. fortunately, many of the government contractors are supporters of the national guard and reserve, and this is important since the national guard and reserve no

>> yeah, i wanted to comment on operatability within the california national guard. they worked really well within the framework that we established with cal fire and then beyond that throughout the national guard and the army, all of our aviators train to the same standards so really we're able to integrate any aircrew from any state, any component, into our program at any time because we're operating you noah cording you know, according to the same standards. back in 2008 we had a very large fire event here in california and we aircraft from 22 states responding to that. there is capability to respond within the national guard alone and we have started developing relationships with our title 10 partners, we do similar academics every year like they do so i think that helps generate interoperatability amongst the title 10 and title 32 assets within the state as well. >> well, i don't know about you all but i feel pretty comfortable going into this fire season. it sounds like we have a pretty integrated group not only within the military capability you but state and

none. >> reporter: she believes the national guard failed to properly investigate her sexual assault. >> reporter: is this exposing the dysfunction inside the guard? >> yes. >> reporter: brown says following the incident in las vegas, she returned to duty where she said she experienced sexual harassment and inappropriate touching. she said it continue for years. >> it is multiple things over and over again. >> reporter: why did you decide to get involved here? >> because i'm a commander. >> reporter: frustrated with the guard's lack of response to jessica brown's reports, lieutenant colonel david emory sent a years us of memos to commander baldwin, the commanding officer of the california guard. >> reporter: do you have any reason to doubt her statements? >> absolutely not. she is one of the finest ncos i've ever seen. >> reporter: in his memos he wrote no reported action has been taken against anyone in the chain of command regarding the numerous leadership and wingman failures. another memo included, i was the first commander to display any interest in her situation. >> reporter: fo

so many of the assets of our nation are in the guard. i had a question for the administrator. first of all, we all had a rash of national disasters last year. in virginia we call it our month of earth, wind, and fire. i want to commend fema. you were outstanding. your communications with the people on the ground, before and after, really was outstanding. in the response of begot afterwards, the public assistance decisions were prompt and great for damage done to public buildings and expenses incurred by municipalities. the challenge that we had with the tremendous devastation in the states, in virginia we were more on the bubble according to the rules of fema. i know that there is only so much resource to go around and so much to you can do, but i am wondering, is that solely driven by money? can you perhaps look again at those categories in terms of when it is appropriate to determine the the state has its own capacity to handle the impact of a disaster or when it would be appropriate to weigh in? >> certainly it was great in our state, but we were denied a couple. i wonder if

with the traditional national guard, we have a habit of saying, just national guard.re in the combat zones now. our people are falling. they're dying just like the regular army or the regular marines or the navy. so if you hear anybody say "just national guard" correct them. because we are a part of the military service. and we are a vital part. because a lot more of us are out there in the reservist component than there are regular army now. i don't know the exact numbers. that might be something you might want to look up. but we are a vital part of the military service. so if you hear someone say "just reservist, just national guard" correct them because we're not just. we're service members. we're soldiers. we die. we do whatever we need to do. we follow orders just like anybody else does. now, what i want to do is welcome you to the powwow. like it was said earlier, the display is right outside. i'm very proud to see it. it brings back some good memories when i walked out the door and looked at that. what i'm going to go through today is what it takes to actually

i think the national guard situation is a crisis.i think it is something that we are kind of sweeping under the rug and not paying close attention to. when i was elected prosecutor in kansas city, i remember looking at resonates and thinking the national guard was a really good thing. that was before it became an operational reserve. i think the testimony that was given here today demonstrates the problem. these companies are not hiring people just because they want to hire a veteran. they are hiring them because they need them for their this is operations and it -- you cannot blame them for not wanting to hire somebody and train them thinking they will be gone a few times over the six or seven years timeframe or even over a 10-year timeframe. i know we are drawing down in afghanistan and we have gone down in iraq. i think we have permanently injured the ability of national guard to get employment in our country by the way we have made these changes. i do not think they were well thought out. we did not have enough boots and around f

the me ask you this about the national guard problem. the majority of people you're hearing are leading national service as opposed to national guard -- i know cap we those. a was thinking about congressional mandate programs and one program that we love and we know it has a high impact and it does make a difference and has to do with those who are in the process of separating and that is the talk program. -- tap program. this is where you can work with them and help them think through how to write a resume. i will look through our numbers. i do not think the majority of them are national guard or reserve. they're typically one source of spreading from the military. if you would get those numbers for us, that would be helpful. i assume the same thing is true for ms. allen. about 11% of our hires' self- separated. this represents the highest overall diversity constituency in the group. -- the firm. these individuals are coming directly from active duty to booz allen as a first thought. i do not have the numbers for the reservists, but we t

we're the experienced national guard force. we do some sort of civil support emergency response system every three days in california. we support the governor, mainly law enforcement and the fire services here in the state. we tend to do more emergency missions every year than any of the 53 states and territories combined. so, we have quite a bit of experience. with that experience has come a wealth of relationship building that's key to success and any disaster response is being able to work with the inter agency. we're in a unique position because in addition to my federal responsibilities for commanding both the army and the air national guard, i also serve as a member of the governor's cabinet and with that i work on a daily basis with all of the other state level assets and resources, cal ema, cal fire, the highway patrol, health and human services and all the other state entities that would respond to support local authorities. we have a full-time liaison officer embedded in cal ema that works there 7 days a week, 5 days

what does the air national guard let you do? >> i dreamed as a little kid being a pilot much the air national guard was the vehicle for me. >> today his plane is a vehicle to spark interest among the next generation. we met 20-year-old adam at a recruitment booth. >> seeing john fly, it seems like something i would want to do in the future. >> it generates that interest, that excitement, i want to check out what the air guard is all about. >> is there a bit of bait and switch here? this looks spectacular but most jobs in the air national guard aren't that spectacular. >> clearly, the percentage of pilots that fly fighters and airplanes in general in the air national guard is very small. but there's over 200 career fields to choose from. >> the air guard estimates that it used to get 25 potential candidates at a recruiting event. but after a john klatt air show, the number of people who considered joining soars to 300. so klatt's most dynamic maneuver may be to perform a successful publicity stunt. seth doane, cbs news, north kin