A unit from the Indiana National Guard will take the helm during one of the Army\u2019s Pacific Pathways exercises in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The exercise, which is conducted three times a year, sends a unit through a training pathway, where it normally spends three to four months in a series of exercises with foreign militaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s usually an active-duty unit that leads the exercises, but the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team is coming off a rotation at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Army National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers have participated in Pacific Pathways in the past, but in small numbers, according to Gen. Robert Brown, commander of U.S. Army Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c[The brigade will be] coming through the Pacific at their highest rate of readiness,\u201d Brown told Army Times. \u201cAnd then demonstrating that they, too, can get where they need to go in a timely manner and can be in the region and truly be expeditionary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Putting a Guard unit in the lead does present some challenges, Brown said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An active-duty unit can train for three months straight, but that\u2019s a little more difficult in this case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always a balancing act with the Guard,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have full-time jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To make this possible, it\u2019s taken coordination with each soldier\u2019s employer, as well as tweaking the timeline of the exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll be gone for shorter time periods,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBut still working to be just as effective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead of three or four months, the Guard unit might be gone for three or four weeks at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll never be the exact same, but close to the same effect,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Army is still working out the details, including which events are chosen and where they\u2019re going to train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhether they go to Malaysia versus Thailand or the Philippines, Singapore, Japan, Korea \u2014 that\u2019s being worked out so that they can do it in the most efficient way possible and the most effective way possible,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAnd yet still not hurt those folks who are employed full time in a civilian job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even with the challenges, Brown said it\u2019s important to give key National Guard elements the same opportunities as active units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnything we do in the Pacific, we always have National Guard divisions involved, so it gives them a credible familiarity with the region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Guard also offers unique experience through the State Partnership Program, which links a state\u2019s National Guard with an equivalent partner in another country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor example, you\u2019ll have an Oregon National Guard general officer who will have been partnered with Vietnam for 20-plus years,\u201d Brown said. \u201cSo they bring tremendous relationships that the active component can\u2019t match.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brown said he\u2019s been in the Pacific a lot over the past 30 years, but even he doesn\u2019t have relationships going back 20 years with one particular country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe try to use the strengths of each of the components as a total Army,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why it\u2019s so good to have the Guard leading a Pacific Pathways and capitalize on their strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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