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DoD to study recommendations on reserves

The Defense Department has convened a senior-level working group to review the recommendations published March 1 by the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves.

The working group will assess the potential impact of the commission’s recommendations for changing the way reserve component forces are led, organized, funded and employed, said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. The group will also suggest changes to current policies and law, and report its findings to Defense Secretary Robert Gates in April.

Thomas Hall, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, will lead the group, which will include senior department civilian and military leaders.

The commission’s report lists 23 wide-ranging recommendations. They include assigning a reservist as commander or deputy commander of U.S. Northern Command, which is in charge of federal homeland defense and civil support activities; making the National Guard Bureau a joint activity of the Defense Department; making the chief of the National Guard Bureau a four-star general and senior adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and giving state governors authority to direct the efforts of federal troops who are sent in following a domestic disaster.

Gates has said he believes the department “will agree with the commission on many issues,” and that he’ll make policy changes where possible.

“For those recommendations that require legislation, I will forward a proposal to the Congress this year,” Whitman quoted Gates as saying. “Whatever the changes, it is important that we sustain the ‘total force’ concept.”