{"id":48556,"date":"2021-03-18T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/03\/18\/the-national-guard-can-do-it-but-that-doesnt-mean-its-a-good-idea\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:37:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:37:31","slug":"the-national-guard-can-do-it-but-that-doesnt-mean-its-a-good-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/commentary\/2021\/03\/18\/the-national-guard-can-do-it-but-that-doesnt-mean-its-a-good-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"The National Guard can do it, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s a good idea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Should the National Guard provide an enduring quick reaction force<\/a> for Washington, D.C., as apparently recommended in a recent report to Congress? Going forward with a potentially endless mission, a key question could be: \u201cwho pays?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given sufficient time, training, and equipment, there are no missions that the soldiers and airmen of the Army and Air National Guards cannot perform as well as their active component counterparts. The same holds true for the U.S. Army Reserve and the Air Force Reserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advantage of having reserve forces is that they are cheaper than active forces because they typically get paid for about 63 days of duty per year versus 365 days for active component service members. The tradeoff for this average lower cost is that when mobilized for a mission, because they have not been training full time year-round, reservists and their units require additional training to bring them up to par with the active component.<\/p>\n\n\n\t