Backtalk: Government must stop treating Guard like active-duty force

[unhappycamper]

Government must stop treating Guard like active-duty force
By Robert F. Dorr

The Air National Guard is changing, but the changes aren’t good for troops, taxpayers or the nation.

They reflect a worrisome trend in America — using borrowed money and a bulked-up central government to wage a war that’s lasting too long and costing too much.

“I don’t recognize my home-state Air National Guard any longer,” retired Lt. Col. Jim Elliott said. “They’ve taken away our planes, our buildings and our base.”

In the 1950s, Elliott piloted the F-84F Thunderstreak jet fighter with the Virginia Air National Guard at Sandston, a base in a corner of Richmond International Airport. But last year, guardsmen there surrendered their aircraft and base to become an appendage to the active-duty fighter wing at Langley Air Force Base, 70 miles to the southeast.

“In the 21st century, we have to be asking, ‘What’s the future of our air militia?’” said Lt. Gen. Craig R. McKinley III, the nation’s top Air Guardsman. “We used to have hometown doctors, lawyers and judges who chose to join us. Now we have mostly airline pilots. They’re the only people who can easily take leave to perform Guard duties.”


Read rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/community/opinion/airforce_backtalk_guard_080225/

[Hangingon]

1. It ain't a flying club anymore.