U.S. Flag and Missouri State Flag Kit Bond, Sixth Generation Missourian
 

Bond Tours Missouri National Guard Installations Senator will Continue to Fight for Guard Priorities - Boost Funding for Equipment and Personnel

Contact: Rob Ostrander 202.224.7627 Shana Stribling 202.224.0309
Wednesday, February 22, 2006

KANSAS CITY, MO - U.S. Senator Kit Bond today began a four-city tour of Missouri National Guard installations, meeting with servicemen and women in Kansas City, St. Joseph, Joplin and Cape Girardeau to discuss his most recent efforts on behalf of the Guard.

“In a difficult budget year tough choices will have to be made. However, providing critical dollars to a proven and effective force such as the National Guard, ensures that our nation remains safe and allow us spend the taxpayer’s hard earned money wisely,” said Bond.

As co-chair of the U.S. Senate National Guard Caucus, Bond is a strong advocate for the nation’s citizen-soldiers. Earlier this month Bond led the Senate opposition to Army proposals to cut the National Guard. The Pentagon backtracked on their plans to scale back the Guard’s force structure after Bond organized broad opposition, more than 75 Senators, to the plan.

While this is a significant victory for the Guard, Bond cautioned that it remains to be seen if the Army’s plan for force structure and equipping will be beneficial or harmful to the Guard’s ability to support military operations abroad and perform its paramount homeland defense and civil support missions.

The National Guard has been a tremendous value for the capabilities it provides our nation, providing 40 percent of the total military force for around 7 percent of the budget, Bond pointed out. Now more than ever, as budgets are constrained and entitlements continue to grow at alarming rates, we should not be looking to reduce the Guard, but rather fully man and fully equip it, stressed Bond.

Our nation was reminded last year during the response to Hurricane Katrina of the importance of the Guard’s homeland defense and civil support mission, said Bond. Over 1300 Missouri Guardsmen were deployed in less than 72 hours and advanced staging teams and convoys were deployed in under 24 and 33 hours respectively. Medical, transportation, airlift, military police, engineering, and communications, are examples of just some of the capabilities Missouri’s Guardsmen provided during the disaster. The Guard’s successful response was attributable to the fact that the Guard is best organized and trained to initiate and coordinate a civil responses of the scale of Katrina.

Despite the critical role the Guard will provide in the event of another terrorist attack or natural disaster, the Guard only has 35 percent of its required equipment levels. Last year Bond led successful efforts in the Senate to increase equipment funding for the National Guard by almost $1 billion and emphasized that he will continue this important fight again this year.

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