National Guard to cut forces after recruiting creates surplus

National Guard to cut forces after recruiting creates surplus

www.usatoday.com

WASHINGTON — As unemployment soars, a combination of cash incentives and aggressive recruiting has left the Army National Guard with a surplus of soldiers, and now it plans to trim its force, according to government documents and interviews with Guard officials.
As recently as 2005, the National Guard fell 20% short of its recruitment goal and was 20,000 soldiers shy of its overall target of 350,000, leading its commander to call it a "hollow" force. The bonuses and relaxed standards for recruits helped fill the Guard's ranks to 366,880 soldiers, beyond the 358,200 authorized by Congress

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.kgw.com
www.bluejersey.com
www.globalsecurity.org
www.freerepublic.com

So, we are having the largest deployments in national Guards in many state's history, and now they want to cut forces possibly at least 8,680 + - Since that is the difference between the amount of soldiers that are right now in the National Guard, and the amount that Congress authorized. But it could be more, or maybe less. The government is not saying how many soldiers they are going to give the boot, and with the way the economy is going, and the unenployment these soldiers are going to find it hard to find jobs.

The more, and more i check we have been, and still are having the largest deployments of National Guard in ALL states as far as I can tell, and now this. Hummm

www.usatoday.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by ElectricUniverse


So, we are having the largest deployments in national Guards in many state's history, and now they want to cut forces possibly at least 8,680 + - Since that is the difference between the amount of soldiers that are right now in the National Guard, and the amount that Congress authorized. But it could be more, or maybe less. The government is not saying how many soldiers they are going to give the boot, and with the way the economy is going, and the unenployment these soldiers are going to find it hard to find jobs.

The more, and more i check we have been, and still are having the largest deployments of National Guard in ALL states as far as I can tell, and now this. Hummm

www.usatoday.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I just had a thought while reading your post. Wouldn't it be funny if the new recruits were getting in the service to recieve free training.There is nothing like military training to prepare you to defend yourself and your family.
Maybe TPTB are aware of this possible trend and are cutting their potential losses.

Yeah, they've cut a lot of the sign-on incentives and enhanced a lot of requirements, as well. Not handing out tattoo waivers, medical waivers, have to score pretty high on the ASVAB, no more College First, and bonuses are going out the window. And good luck getting in if you have any sort of criminal record.

I'm actually IN the Guard, and it's gotten me kinda worried about losing my job. I guess it does help with the motivation that the guard seems to lack every now and then, though.