NGAUS Escalates Guard-Army Conflict Another Notch

[unhappycamper]

http://breakingdefense.com/2014/03/ngaus-escalates-guard-army-conflict-another-notch/



A California National Guard soldier in Afghanistan.

NGAUS Escalates Guard-Army Conflict Another Notch
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on March 17, 2014 at 2:34 PM

WASHINGTON: Late Friday, the powerful National Guard Association of the US escalated the already bitter conflict between the Guard community and regular Army leaders by another notch — and they did so in response to something an Army general told Breaking Defense.

On Tuesday, Breaking Defense published an interview I’d done with Maj. Gen. John Rossi, the regular Army’s Quadrennial Defense Review director, about the limitations of the National Guard. ( http://tinyurl.com/n92wxqw ). What Rossi said was provocative, and many in the Guard community (though by no means all) have taken it as an insult to their institution and their service. “NGAUS has heard from countless members who were deeply saddened or stung by the comments,” a National Guard Association spokesman told me. “Your story Thursday (on the reaction to Rossi) included a tiny fraction of what we heard.”

Here’s how NGAUS’s president, retired Maj. Gen. Gus Hargett (who is a frequent presence on this website) chose to put it on his blog on Friday afternoon:

The general told breakingdefense.com that much of the praise Guard brigade combat teams have received since 9/11 is misplaced. He said Guard brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan were primarily assigned less-complex missions while the active component did the heavy lifting…..