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Home / Washington Business - November/December 2003 / Q & A with Maj. Gen. Tim Lowenberg |
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Q & A with Maj. Gen. Tim Lowenberg |
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Written On: November/December 2003 |
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Written By: Don Brunell |
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Maj. Gen. Tim Lowenberg is the National Guard's Adjutant General and the Homeland Security Director in Washington state. He was appointed Adjutant General of the Washington National Guard by Washington Governor Gary Locke in 1999. General Lowenberg also serves as Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee for the Adjutants General of United States Association and as Homeland Security Advisor to the Governor.
Washington’s Adjutant General Gives His Insights on the Reserves and Their Role in Our Nation’s Defense
Editor’s Note: With reservists being sent around world these days, we asked Washington’s Adjutant General for his views on a number of issues pertaining to deployments, soldiers, employers and families. Here is Maj. Gen. Tim Lowenberg’s response. He will address AWB’s members on Dec. 10 at a Seattle luncheon. For information, contact: Kandice Jackson at 360-943-1600 or KandiceJ@awb.org.
What is the role of the reserve components today?
The National Guard and other Reserve components have been an integral part of the nation’s Total Force military strategy. With reductions in the active military services over the past 15 years, Guard and Reserve members are called upon to assume an even larger role in executing military missions at home and abroad. Simply stated, we can no longer project or sustain military operations of any significant scale anywhere in the world without calling upon the combat, combat support and combat service support capabilities of the reserve components. In part, this is because the Guard and Reserves constitute a significant percentage of our overall military force.
What percent?
The Army Guard (ARNG) and Army Reserve (USAR) collectively comprise 60 percent of the Army’s total combat capability, 54 percent of its combat support capability, and 68.5 percent of the Army’s combat service support capability. The Air National Guard alone constitutes 45 percent of the Air Force’s total aerial refueling fleet, 49 percent of all theater airlift, 34 percent of all combat fighter aircraft and 100 percent of the fighter interceptor aircraft.
What are the federal budget impacts?
In FY 2003, the National Guard provided more than 20 million man-days in more than 85 nations. During this time, Washington National Guard personnel were deployed to 6-12 countries at any given time, including front line combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Relying on the Guard and Reserves allows the nation to leverage and enhance critical private sector skills at the lowest possible cost. The National Guard, for example, provides 38 percent of the Army and 30 percent of the Air Force’s force structure for only 4.8 percent of the defense budget. Utilizing Guard and Reserve forces allows the U.S. to maintain military operations in the Sinai Peninsula, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Korean Peninsula and other areas of vital interest to the U.S.
What is the average duration of these deployments? Will they increase or decrease in length in the future?
Under the President’s partial mobilization authority, members and units of the Guard and Reserves can be activated for full-time federal service for up to two years. Individual deployments, however, range in duration from a few months to a year or more. The length of activations and deployments varies depending upon the nature of the military service, the mission, and the availability of forces. All military services have what we call “low density-high demand” mission areas in which operational needs exceed available resources. In these areas, deployments are often more frequent and for longer duration. It’s also easier to deploy small support units for shorter periods than large combat units. As a general rule, our soldiers and airmen are deployed for six-months to one year “in theater”. Mobilization and training prior to actual deployment and post-deployment demobilization procedures can add another six months to the overseas deployment. We are working hard to streamline and thus reduce the duration of these mobilization and demobilization activities. We are also pressing hard for longer term forecasting of unit deployments so our members and their families and employers can have better predictability of their likely periods of service. Our goal is to have a force presentation policy that will expose Guard and Reserve members to an activation or deployment not more often than once every six years. I believe we can achieve this goal of predictability and still reduce the duration of future activations for most of our members
Will this reliance continue?
I believe this level of Guard and Reserve integration will continue well into the 21st century. If we’re successful in our international diplomatic efforts, our operations tempo should stabilize and reduce over time. Until then, it is incumbent on our national leaders to make adjustments that will better manage the frequency and length of mobilizations and provide greater certainty and predictability to our soldiers and airmen and their family members and employers.
How do you accomplish your state mission and respond to state emergencies when your troops are deployed to Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait?
Even if more than 4,000 of our soldiers and airmen were to be deployed overseas, we will have a larger number still available to respond to state emergencies. Remember, use of the National Guard should be a measure of last resort. If we don’t have the resources in state because of extensive deployments, we can bring in Guard forces from neighboring states under existing interstate compacts. Under these compacts, sister-state Guard forces would operate under my coordinating authority and in compliance with Washington law.
If a small employer has a key person who is activated for an extended period and that deployment causes a hardship on that employer, is there a way a soldier can return to his job in advance of his or her tour of duty?
There is a hardship release process for activated Guard or Reserve members but federal authorities rarely approve such applications. By contrast, state command officials have authority to release Guard members from state active duty and federal Title 32 activations and such applications are often more positively considered.
All Guard members understand their obligation to serve and are encouraged to keep their families and employers fully informed so they can plan for such contingencies. We’re fortunate that Washington employers have understood the importance of their employees’ military service and have been very supportive. When unavoidable hardships occur, we try to work with the employers, but often the final decision is beyond our authority.
How can employees reduce the conflicts between their civilian jobs, military duties and family responsibilities?
Employees are responsible for informing their employers as soon as possible of all training requirements as well as active duty periods. When there have been problems in the past it’s almost always because of poor communications. We encourage employees to keep their employers fully informed and we do everything possible to show employers what their employees are doing in the military setting and the valuable contributions they’re making to our national defense. There are occasional hardships and inconveniences to be sure, but the tangible benefits of employing Guard and Reserve members include: the employees are drug free - we routinely and randomly test our members for illegal drugs; they learn discipline and teamwork; they learn and enhance valuable leadership skills; and they continually train in technical skills that inure to the profit of their civilian employer. We also have a statewide volunteer Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) committee that works with employers and helps resolve employer-employee problems. Our family readiness programs also bear mentioning. We have formal family readiness programs to assist our members in successfully balancing work, family and military responsibilities. Whenever a Guardsman is mobilized the extended “Guard family” steps in to assist the immediate family members deal with things like home or car repairs, babysitting and “kids nights out”. We care deeply about our soldiers and airmen. As is true of all employers, our people are our most important product. When activated for state or federal military duty, they have our full support at home so they can focus on the job at hand.
In 2006, there may be another round of base and installation closures. Will Washington be impacted? Are there installations which are vulnerable? What can Washington’s business community do to insure our state maintains its bases?
There will definitely be a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round in 2005. Estimates are that this round may result in closure of 20-25 percent of all domestic military installations. Washington actually realized a sizable increase in military personnel as a result of the last BRAC cycle and that could again be the case, but some of our installations could also be in jeopardy this time around. Until the base closure criteria is finalized by the Secretary of Defense and reported to Congress it will be difficult to forecast what the impact on Washington could be. We have outstanding state and local community support for our facilities as witnessed by the State Legislature’s Joint Select Committee on Veterans and Military Affairs. Committee members have been visiting all of our bases to understand and document the missions, the unique characteristics of the facilities and the level of community support for the installations. One positive aspect of Washington’s installations is that many of them can accept additional missions and personnel, which gives us a great advantage as we enter this next cycle. Washington’s chambers of commerce and other business associations have been heavily supportive and many have had long-standing Military Affairs committees. Should one or more of our bases end up on a potential BRAC list, business and community support can be a critical aspect in the formal evaluation process.
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