NC Guard hosts Senior Leaders Workshop

Photo By Sgt. Odaliska Almonte | Army Gen. Frank J. Grass, right, Chief of the National Guard Bureau, and Air Force Command Chief Master Sgt. Mitchell O. Brush, senior enlisted adviser to the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, give a brief on National Guard future plans and operations to active and retired North Carolina National Guard Soldiers and Airmen at the NCNG Senior Leaders Workshop at NCNG Joint Force Headquarters, in Raleigh, N.C., Jan. 24, 2015.  

RALEIGH, NC, UNITED STATES

01.25.2015

Story by Sgt. 1st Class Robert Jordan    

North Carolina National Guard

RALEIGH, N.C. - The North Carolina National Guard has deployed more than 21,000 Citizen-Soldiers and Airmen during 13 years, while at the same time responded to natural disasters statewide. They have earned the right to be labeled an “Always Ready, Ready Team.” What does an organization like the NCNG do with a decade’s worth of lessons learned from battle and domestic operations? That was the question at the NCNG Senior Leaders Workshop conducted here, Jan. 24-25, 2015.

“The theme of this workshop is networking and education,” said Army Maj. Gen. Greg Lusk, adjutant general of North Carolina. “Use these two days to learn and share to make us a better organization.”

Senior leaders of every command from across the state brought their expertise, training, deployment experience and decades of duty together to share with future minutemen.

“The next generation of leaders will inherit this organization,” said Lusk.

A few words the Secretary of N.C. Department of Public Safety, Frank Perry and Gov. Pat McCrory, commander-in-chief of the NCNG brought this home.

“It [being a Guardsman] is a big responsibility,” said Perry.

“I have no doubt you will keep us safe at home and abroad,” said McCrory via video to the assembled leaders.

This workshop is not a chance for praise but the careful reflection of what it is to lead in war and disaster; at home and abroad. Breakout sessions, prominent national and state guest speakers and question and answer sessions with the highest levels of NCNG leadership gave commanders and non-commissioned officers a chance to share what a decade of battle with the enemy and the elements has taught.

This interaction must prevent the “right ideas being wrongly applied,“ warned retired Army Lt. Gen. Daniel Bolger, author of "Why We Lost: A General's Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars."

Using the NCNG in future operations was the topic of Army Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, director, Army Capabilities Integration Center and deputy commanding general, Futures, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.

“The National Guard and regular forces working together is our strength and is more important now than ever,” said McMaster.

NCNG leaders will share what they learned at the workshop with the more than 11,500 Soldiers and Airmen they lead at readiness centers across the state.

“It validates what we do and how we train and deploy,” said Air Force Maj. Jason Cowan, commander of the North Carolina Air National Guard’s 263rd Combat Communications Squadron Operations Flight.

• Date Taken: 01.25.2015
• Date Posted: 01.27.2015 15:20
• Story ID: 152870
• Location: RALEIGH, NC, US