Re-Looking Sacred Cows: The Eight National Guard Combat Divisions

摘要

The Cold War has ended and the Department of Defense has just completed a Bottom-Up Review. This thesis looks at what role the National Guard and in particular the force structure that the eight divisions will play in the national security strategy. The force structure of the divisions are deemed by some to be excess. This force structure does not have a current wartime mission. This thesis analyzes the Bottom-Up Review, Roles and Mission Study, the force structure of the National Guard and the federal and state missions required of these forces. The results of the thesis determined that the force structure of the National Guard is improperly allocated. This improper allocation and the failure to assign valid missions to all of the forces of the National Guard leads many to believe that there is excess force structure within the National Guard. There is a shortage of CS and CSS units that has been identified by the recently completed Total Army Analysis. Some of the force structure of the National Guard divisions should be converted and assigned these missions. The remaining divisions are required to accomplish post-mobilization training of the enhanced brigades and military support to civilian authorities.