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How 9/11 changed the National Guard

By Sgt. Michael Dann
National Guard Bureau
September 5, 2006

ARLINGTON, Va. (Army News Service, Sept. 5, 2006) – At 8:46 on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 flew into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, the first of the terrible events that defined that terrible day.

The terrorist attacks five years ago this month spurred the National Guard into action – protecting government offices, airports and critical infrastructure across the land.

“When the towers collapsed and that airplane hit the Pentagon, it started a no-notice transformation for the National Guard,” said Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau. “That transformation continues to this day and will continue for the foreseeable future.”

The Guard has seen tremendous growth in its capabilities and missions, both at home and overseas, changing its role from a strategic reserve force to an operational force, he said.

“The Guard at one point had over 50 percent of the ground combat units, infantry and armor, fighting in Iraq,” Blum said. “Today we have over 70,000 Guard members serving or heading overseas in support of the global war on terrorism.”

That role as an operational force and the new mission along the U.S.-Mexico border have thrust the Guard into the public eye, Blum pointed out. The Guard’s response to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma last year also made front-page news around the world.

“All 50 states, four territories, any place that had a Guard unit, sent help. Over 50,000 Guard members responded to Katrina with just a phone call,” the Guard Bureau chief said. “That was the largest, most rapid military response to a natural disaster in the history of the world.”

Now, President George W. Bush has called on the Guard to help the U.S. Border Patrol secure the borders in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California against illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, the Guard remains engaged in other missions at home and in more than 40 countries around the world.

So far, the public has responded positively to the Guard’s new identity, with recruiting numbers running at an all-time high.

“The opinion about the National Guard has moved in a few short years from ‘Are they relevant?’ to being deemed essential to the security of this nation,” Blum said. “We may be at an all-time high in terms of our image. We may, in fact, be the most respected uniformed force in hometown America right now.“

Many new capabilities are being added to the Guard’s inventory to better serve its homeland defense mission.

Each of the 50 states and the four territories now have a joint-force headquarters to give the states better command and control over assets during times of crisis, both inside and outside their borders.

By the end of this year each state will have a civil-support team ready to react at a moment’s notice in case of a natural disaster or terrorist attack. The teams will be able to detect and identify deadly agents, advise authorities about the best course of action, and establish a communications bridge between local, state and federal emergency responders.

“The fact that we haven’t had a shutdown of any commercial part of our nation since 9/11 is huge,” says Blum. “It’s because of the contributions these 21st century men and women of the Guard are making to the defense of our nation.”

Even with all the deployments and changing homeland defense missions, retention has never been better, giving the Guard its most combat-experienced forces since the end of World War II.

“The people of the National Guard are the finest young men and women we have ever had in our ranks in our 369-year history,” Blum said.

The Guard today has the youngest force since the end of the draft almost 35 years ago, he added.

“It’s also the most experienced force the Guard has ever had. Over half of our Citizen-Soldiers and Airmen are veterans of at least one prolonged combat tour,” Blum pointed out, and many have had second and third tours.

When you include the numerous mobilizations for domestic missions like airport security, the G-8 Summit, the Democratic and Republican conventions, and numerous natural disasters of which Katrina is only the most prominent example, many Guard members have had four or five tours, Blum added. That pace was inconceivable before Sept. 11, 2001.