"The members of the New Jersey National Guard who responded to the terrorist attacks in New York should be treated like those from other states," said Saxton, a senior member of the House Military Personnel Subcommittee which voted to include the measure last night. "These are those citizen soldiers who rushed to defend the nation in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. This is a just action. I plan to bring it to the full Armed Services Committee next week and ultimately to the House floor for a vote."

The measure includes Hudson, Bergen, Union, and Middlesex counties as "covered" counties for Guard members in the personnel retirement system. Each of these counties required full-time activation of National Guard members to provide direct support to New York City in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The provision provides New Jersey National Guard members who were activated to serve in these four counties in the wake of the attacks with the same retirement credit as their counterparts in New York and Virginia. If signed into law, it will ultimately provide an extra retirement point for each day of newly defined qualifying service.

One of Saxton’s key recent accomplishments was saving the New Jersey National Guard’s 1,400-member 108^th Air Refueling Wing in 2005, which was left with no tanker planes after the Pentagon released its Base Realignment and Closure list nearly a year ago. After three months of intense efforts, Saxton convinced the commission to direct a squadron of modernized jet tankers to the 108^th Wing.