Latest United States Air National Guard Stories
By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Governors and legislators from several U.S. states are vowing to fight proposed Pentagon cutbacks at Air National Guard bases after a military review commission approved stripping aircraft from dozens of units. In one contentious move, the independent panel reviewing proposed military base cutbacks voted on Friday to close the Willow Grove Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base near Philadelphia. That came despite a federal court ruling barring...
By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leaders of state National Guard units have challenged the Air Force's authority to strip their units of aircraft and personnel, adding to a chorus of state opposition to the Pentagon's proposed extensive cutbacks of Guard units. The Adjutants General Association urged the Base Realignment and Closure Commission in a letter to reject the majority of the Air Force's base closure and restructuring recommendations pertaining to Air National Guard units....
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Faced with major recruiting problems sparked by troop deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon has asked Congress to raise the maximum age for U.S. military enlistees from 35 to 42 years old. The request, sent to lawmakers this week, would apply to all active duty branches of the military services, said Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, on Friday. But it is aimed chiefly at the active duty Army, which has fallen far short of recruiting...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Army National Guard, tapped heavily by the Pentagon for soldiers in Iraq, likely will miss its recruiting goal for the third straight year, the general who runs it said on Tuesday. U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau at the Pentagon, argued that the Army National Guard was not in "serious crisis mode" even as it stood about 19,000 troops below the 350,000-strong force authorized by Congress. Blum said potential recruits and their...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pennsylvania's governor and two U.S. senators sued the Pentagon on Monday to prevent deactivation of a Pennsylvania Air National Guard unit in a bid to save a military base from closure. In what is being viewed as the first lawsuit of its kind, Gov. Ed Rendell, joined by Pennsylvania's Republican Sens. Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, is invoking the "militia clause" of the U.S. Constitution to prevent de-activation of the national guard's 111th Fighter Wing at the...
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Army National Guard, struggling more than any other part of the U.S. military to sign up new troops amid the Iraq war, missed its ninth straight monthly recruiting goal in June, officials said on Monday. In danger of missing a third straight annual recruiting goal, the Army National Guard fell 14 percent short of its June recruiting target, the Pentagon said. Three quarters through fiscal 2005, which ends Sept. 30, the Army National Guard stood 23...
By Jim Christie SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A California lawmaker whocontrols funding for the state National Guard said on Tuesdayhe will hold hearings into whether a guard unit that analyzesterrorism threats spied on anti-war protesters. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office said it also isinvestigating the matter. "We are aware of it and concerned about it and are lookinginto it," said spokeswoman Margita Thompson. State Sen. Joe Dunn said reports about the unit'smonitoring of war protesters...
