AFRC commander discusses priorities with Congress

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Katie Spencer
  • 459th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
WASHINGTON --  Service chiefs from the Reserve and Guard components of the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard met with members of Congress on Capitol Hill, March 14.

Lt. Gen. James Jackson, the chief of Air Force Reserve and commander, Air Force Reserve Command, was in attendance at the breakfast and had the opportunity to address the House National Guard and Reserve Components Caucus, who hosted the event.

The NGRCC convenes annually to ensure the National Guard and Reserve components are resourced and have inputs on policy and force structure within the Department of Defense.

"There is no venue, with the exception of the caucus breakfast, where you have the heads of the Guard and Reserve forces in one location, laying out in clear terms what it is that their services need to maintain readiness," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, (R-Calif.), co-chair of the NGRCC. "Given the budgetary issues facing our defense community, this is the best kind of meeting that helps Congress make sound decisions that support our men and women serving in harm's way."

Leaders from each branch of service spoke about their top three priorities. Jackson said the top three priorities for the Air Force Reserve are the mission, manpower and modernization.

Jackson opened up his priority list by mentioning the lack of funding for the 14,000 DOD civilians the AF Reserve has on staff; nearly 10,000 are dual-status Air Reserve Technicians who are members of the Reserve serving in a civilian capacity when not in military status. The ARTs are essential in the everyday mission of the AF Reserve and they work to make sure the planes get in the air and the missions are successful, he said.

"The underlying principles are to remain a combat-ready, cost-effective, experienced force," he added. "We are that now, and we want to continue to be that."

In addition to the importance of the mission, Jackson spoke on retaining Airmen as part of his manpower priority.

"We need to be able to retain experienced Airmen for life," he said. "We have civilian skill sets and also capture the active duty skill sets. If we can retain that manpower and the ability to utilize it [manpower] as an operational ready-Reserve, than that is a benefit to the nation."

The last of the top three priorities for the AF Reserve was modernization.

While Jackson touched on a number of modernization issues, he focused on the use of the National Guard and Reserve Equipment Account funds. NGREA is procurement funding provided by Congress directly to all reserve components to fill shortfalls in equipment provided by the services.

"We are spending money right now on the defense of large aircraft, on targeting pods and all pieces of equipment that we need for our Air Force," he said. "And the bottom line is all of that can be paid through the NGREA funds and help the total force and the nation."

According to a position paper from the Reserve Officers Association of the United States, "the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year-2012 authorized the appropriations of $1 billion for Guard and Reserve equipment. Without the appropriation, the Reserve Component would have only received $325 million in the Defense Authorization bill."

"I think it is extremely important to have the leaders from Congress, the Reserve components and strategic partners here to put together a game plan and a way forward in particularly as we go through this time of sequestration and a continuing resolution," he said.

The breakfast ended with closing remarks from Rep. Timothy Walz of Minnesota, co-chair of the NGRCC, speaking on how the troops of the military have fought and sacrificed for the sake of democracy and the ability to have a civilian government which allows freedom and allows society to move forward.

"We can have a spirit of debate on differences, but to allow what's happening now is irresponsible and disrespectful to those sacrifices," he said. "We've got a mission to complete; we know what the end result looks like and leaving here with anything less than that is unacceptable."