{"id":46685,"date":"2018-01-23T23:22:18","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T23:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/01\/23\/more-than-170000-guard-reserve-troops-continue-to-be-affected-by-shutdown\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:55:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:55:16","slug":"more-than-170000-guard-reserve-troops-continue-to-be-affected-by-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2018\/01\/23\/more-than-170000-guard-reserve-troops-continue-to-be-affected-by-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 170,000 Guard, Reserve troops continue to be affected by shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The National Guard and Reserve continue to deal with the effects of the three-day shutdown that halted non-essential government programs over the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Congress worked to finalize a new budget extension, the shutdown, which kicked in after midnight Friday, forced the Army and Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command to cancel scheduled training and enforce furloughs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drill was canceled for about 90,000 Army National Guard soldiers over the weekend because there wasn\u2019t money left in the system to pay the soldiers, a spokesman for the National Guard Bureau told Military Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce money is there, states will be able to move forward with their plans to make up the drill that was missed,\u201d Sgt. 1st Class Michael Houk said. \u201cAs Guardsmen must attend 24 days of drill annually, missed training will be rescheduled at the state level once everyone comes back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Houk added that it\u2019s up to individual states to decide when the missed training days will be rescheduled. The training that was canceled was not in support of overseas deployments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the canceled training included a combat exercise at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, with units from North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia, according to the National Guard Association of the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fayetteville Observer reported<\/a> that 2,600 local soldiers and hundreds of military vehicles were involved. The exercise, which began on Friday, was cut short and troops were sent home, according to the newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This exercise required six months of planning, according to NGAUS, and even though training can be rescheduled, it \u201crequires some complex choreography.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTraining sites must be scheduled months in advance,\u201d according to an NGAUS statement. \u201cCommanders have other plans for the months ahead. So do our families. And unlike in the active component, the needs of civilian employers must be considered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t