The US armed forces has always suffered from too much tail and not enough teeth. A lot of this stems from the US experience in World War Two, where the Regular Army was jumped from ten or so divisions up to 90 active divisions, plus hundred of supporting battalions. The existing RA and NG were so overwhelmed, that one of the surveys that was conducted at the time, showed that there was one prewar soldier for every forty war time only soldiers.
It also didn't help that the National Guard was considered to be a hot bed of political apointees and over-aged soldiers, coupled with several scandals concerning state misuse of NG funding, the Guard entered WWII and suffered the brutal culling of a sizable portion of its prewar leadership. Ever since then, it has almost been a mindset in the RA, that this would have to be done again, in the event of a major war.
The NG has always been considered to be under-funded and poorly-equipped. Even more so during the periods 1970-1990. Even the National Guard Round-Out Brigades were not considered to be combat-ready for at least 30 days with many of the divisions considered to not be ready for combat for 90+ days. But during the lean years of post-Vietnam, even the RA was scrambling for adequate funding. Virtually the only combat capable divisions during this period were 2nd Infantry in Korea, 82nd and 101st Airborne (Strategic Reserve), and US Army Europe. The REFORGER units would have gone into combat missing a third of their front line strength, not to mention shrortages in equipment and personnel on top of that. The equipment situation was made even worse by the stripping of spare parts and the removal of critical equipment from stateside combat equipment.
So I do agree with the decision to move the National Guard bureau chief up to four-star rank. The NG has always needed a louder voice in DoD...but to make the NG a separate branch? Or give them a seat on JCS? Nope! From its foundation following the Spanish-American War, the NG has always been a reserve componment of the RA.
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