 Thank you very much. Good morning, and thank you for attending the Army National Guard Seminar Recruiting training and organizing the Army National Guard of 2030 Hosted by the 22nd director of the Army National Guard Lieutenant General John Jensen Lieutenant General Jensen is Guides the formula formulation development and implementation of all programs and policies that affect the Army National Guard a force of nearly 330,000 soldiers across the 50 states three territories and the District of Columbia General Jensen previously served as the 31st Adjutant General of the state of Minnesota and prior to that the CG of the 34th ID St. Paul, Minnesota He was dual-headed as the deputy commander and Army Reserve Component Integration Advisor United States Army Africa and South Southern European Task Force US Africa Command Vachenza, Italy General Jensen is commanded at the company battalion brigade and division levels his operational assignments include operation desert spring operation joint forage and operation Iraqi freedom General Jensen is joined today by two state adjutants general the commanding general of the 38th ID and the director of Army National Guard installations and energy The director will introduce them momentarily. This will flow by General Jensen Providing an overview of today's program And then each of our guests is going to present on various initiatives and priorities from across the Army National Guard And now I turn it over to the director of the Army National Guard, sir. Okay. Hey, thanks, Rob I appreciate that and first off just like to thank everybody for Being here this morning and participating in the Army Guard seminar, you know really As we were as we were developing what we wanted to talk about today What we did was we went back to Secretary of the Army Secretary warm it were moves February 2020 memo where she laid out her six Objectives for the United States Army in support of the Army's priorities of people modernization and and readiness I won't read through those six topics But or those six objectives, but what we tried to do is take you know Tie into that obviously as a as our secretary secretary and then also inside a USA's theme this year, which is building the Army of 2030 and so I'll introduce our panelists today Starting to my left the agent general of of Ohio Major General John Harris John's a lifelong Ohio Guardsman enlisted in 1981 commissioned in 1984 John and I have known each other Probably for at least a decade if not longer Working at several readiness advisory committees and special projects inside of the directorate Of the Army Guard and then and then serving together as adjudicants general John also serves as the vice president for Army affairs For the adjunct generals association of the United States to his left Another longtime friend a major general Tim Tomlinson Tim's currently serving as the commanding general the 38th infantry division and has been doing so since December of 2020 Growing up in the 34th infantry division It just seemed like the 38th and the 34th were following one another and training Exercises and deployments and such and so Tim and I have known each other for quite some time to his left Brigadier general Stephanie Horvath Stephanie is a Minnesota guardsman are one traditional guardsman on the panel today Originally a member of the North Dakota National Guard But Steph and I work together in Minnesota Certainly my highlight. I don't know if she would describe it as her highlight Steph served as the G6 as I was the G3 for the 34th infantry division When we deployed to Basra Iraq in 2009 2010 and as a traditional guardsman I think it's also important just to note that Steph's current position inside of the Minnesota information technology is chief business technology officer for the Minnesota boards councils and commissions and the enterprise program management office and And then finally a stand-in Colonel Anthony Hammond found out last night that he was going to be a panel member here when our previous panel member Had to step out And so Anthony Hammond lifelong Arkansas guardsman Currently serves as the chief Army National Guard G9 now the topics we're talking about today Just very quick and I apologize. I should have done this as I introduced our panelists But John Harris is going to talk About recruiting and retention in the in the Army National Guard those of you that have heard me speak about priorities for the Army National Guard and strength Function of recruiting and retention. I've described as our most pressing and key Pride priority and certainly will will help lead us into the Army of 2030 Tim Tomlinson and his roles as a division commander is going to talk about Really kind of the the reorganization of the Army Guard under Division headquarters once again, he's going to talk about Army National Guard division and division way ahead to 2030 And then Steph Horvath is going to talk about data centricity. What is it? That's exactly what I asked Steph What is it? Well Steph, maybe you'll answer that question this morning and then Colonel Hammond We'll be talking about the Army National Guard Implementation of the Army climate strategy again these four topics tied to Secretary Warmoth's six objective. So with that General Harris, I'll turn it over to you for your for your opening comments. Thank you. Hey, thank you, sir And I couldn't agree more that this is this is the greatest priority that we face as as Agents General as National Guard leaders I also believe and I'm going to give you the perspective from from my foxhole from that of an Agents General So I'm not speaking on half of General Jensen or The Army staff but simply give you my perspective as as a guy who's got sort of out there on the front lines Kind of grinding in this fight every single day In Ohio Guard, we're about 16,000 about 11,000 of those are Army Guard 5,000 air guard And this is this is a fight that we literally wake up thinking about every single morning This is our obligation to meet the challenge of building cohesive Discipline teams that are that are fit to fight That's the charge it always has been the charge and now more important than ever and we certainly can't get there From here if we look at the current recruiting environment and the way that we're responding to that current and recruiting environment I also think that for the next few minutes. I'm going to focus more on recruiting than retention We've had a pretty good retention year Our attrition as a guard nation was just over 11 percent against a Cap of 13 percent. So we still wait stayed way under that So I'm going to spend my time talking about what I think is the true existential threat Which is which is really a list enlisted of sessions and and and overall recruiting I also believe and this is an editorial But I believe that the guard is probably in the best position to help solve this problem Number one because we represent America We know the challenges of America I think we have an obligation more than more than anyone else to ensure that our ranks are representative of our communities So that when we go to the fight the communities go with us community sentiment goes with us But more importantly, we have an obligation to all those young men and women in our communities who can benefit from our military service moreover We have 54 laboratories out there That 54 Agents General who have the authority to experiment to get after solving this problem I think it's very important that When we when we test cases and we find things that work That we very rapidly disseminate those those lessons learned across the force and get after Implementing them as quickly as possible and other and other across across the rest of the force. Here's what I mean by that Dale Lyles for example Tag a tag of Indiana Implemented a policy over the last fiscal year that he was going to live to the social contract 39 days And no more and if you intend to work your folks more than 39 days of the fiscal year You had to get approval from the tag and so we would expect that to have some pretty significant Impacts on the on the retention in the state of Indiana now the fiscal years close I'm very anxious to find out how that went and If in fact it did go well What lessons we could learn from that how we how we share those lessons across the force very rapidly And if it didn't go well quite frankly, then we've got to fail quickly and get on to something else But again as as 54 laboratories for this sort of experimentation. I truly believe the guards in the best place to to get after solving this problem We know that we're facing headwinds. There's absolutely no doubt about it And and the one that comes up most often is this discussion about propensity to serve And I will share with you that I think first of all we can't think of this propensity issue as as a monolithic Challenge that we can't overcome It's very important that we dissect it and figure out what really contributes to this propensity to serve and get after solving it But sometimes it seems like that big monster out there That we do de and and the services are gonna have to wrestle with and it's insurmountable, but it's really not So I just don't I just don't accept that propensity to serve is decreasing as something that we have to live with you know if we look at the factors that really could contribute or or Shape this propensity to serve probably one of the most important is is that we are a smaller force and fewer Young men and women have family members that that have served in courage in this earth. In fact in 1995 1995 40% little over 40% of young men and women had a parent that had served in the military That was 1995 and 2021 that same statistic was down to 13% So that household encouragement That household experience even the household awareness or knowledge of what military service really is or what it's about Is certainly doing dwindling and contributing to that tendency for young women women to serve again? I don't think that's insurmountable, but we have to accept the reality first of all what a household is It's certainly not the same as it was in 1995 if we look at our Our people of color, especially black communities 72% of kids that are born today are born single-family households So the way we perceive families the way we communicate with families the way we influence can't cook families around military service Has to adapt with that statistic, but again, I don't think that's overcome over not overcomeable I think one of the greatest challenges around this this propensity to serve issue is just a lot of misguided messaging during a serve a recent survey that was done by the OSD office of people analytics They surveyed military-age folks and then this survey it was 16 through 24 year-old young folks people approaching military service and 57 57% of those young people believe that if you served in the military That you would leave the military with some sort of emotional or psychological damage 57% of the young people surveyed believe that and and in that same survey I think it was like 45% of those young people believe that if you join the military You're gonna have trouble readjusting when you came out of the military and Over 40% of that same population believe that if you serve in the military You were gonna come away with it with some sort of physical disability or or injury Now those are tough tough statistics to overcome and quite frankly. We know that they're not reality But again the messaging that I think our young people are receiving if you watch television commercials during most major sporting events And I love our not-for-profits that support our our military But just about every one of those is is in order to in order to achieve their project objectives Right in order to achieve their objectives. They're depicting folks who are injured or ill as a result of military service And how they're not for profit helps them and If we look at the the that messaging time and time again, what counters that messaging? So there's there's no surprise that 57% of young people believe that if you serve something bad's gonna happen to you as a result of your military Service and we know that's not true But how do we how do we counter that message? It's really about building back building back the trust. I Found there's very little messaging out there about how about the resources that we've put behind responding to sexual assaults About how our our soldiers are trusting us more and that's resulting in an increase in reporting of sexual assaults But the messaging comes across there's an increase in sexual assaults in the army and and if your loved one serves They're gonna be sexually assaulted. That's that's the takeaway and we must we must we must counter that because again That's one of those components. That's that's affecting propensity to serve We also if we look at the depiction of current events You know, we still like it or not we do the particularly By our veterans community we we take some of the blame for The exit of Afghanistan, you know, the perception is we blew it Right or wrong that's a perception and and more than one person you've heard it more than one person has said that or Believes that how did you guys let this happen? How would you guys not communicate better to your leaders? This is a failed of military a failure of military leadership to communicate to your leaders You've seen article upon article upon article about that and that's certainly shaping public perception not to mention the fact That many of the missions that we are comp that we're accomplishing and incredibly successful on today have become polarizing the guards on the southwest border and oh by the way if you read that if you read the media accounts you would think that That it's nothing but Disorder and chaos and undisciplined on the southwest border by National Guard soldiers because that's all that gets depicted and of course the You know the capital should the guard have been at the capitals misuse of the guard I shouldn't have been there you you chose sides, which we didn't and we know that But all these missions are polarizing and certainly don't help perceptions for for us when it comes to recruiting and of course the vaccine mandate You know quite frankly we as a National Guard as I mentioned should be more reflective of America Than any other component because we are in the communities. We are the communities and quite frankly we deploy the community to support the community So being reflective of those communities we support is probably more important for us and ever but There are there are limitations and standards and dod right now that make it tougher and tougher and tougher for us to do that every day Let's face it, you know young men and women today They're they're their perceptions their views on marijuana use is way different than it was for for people my generation probably most of yours You know we were in high school. We we we sneaked out and maybe had a beer got away with it That's that's how they perceive smoking a joint and and to be disqualified for that You know that 44 percent of our people who go through maps 44 percent of our young men and women who go through maps Are disqualified for more than one condition? 44 percent 11 percent are Disqualified for being overweight and that and eight percent that single issue just being overweight and Over eight percent are disqualified for drug use. So it's the second highest other than multi-factors It's the second highest reason for disqualification and let's not even talk about MHS genesis and the impact of that and I know we're gonna get that right. I'm confident we're gonna get that right But right now it's an impediment to a sessions. I Had my recruiting force my army recruiting force Take a look at flash to bang time between contract to contact contact the contract that first first contact Face-to-face meeting with an applicant to the time they raise their hand and say I do and that's 80 days The average time is 80 days and that's not all because of the MHS genesis But that's certainly a contribution and a young person changes their mind 30 times in an 80 day period and by the way I have my air guard do the same thing and it's almost identical almost the exact same time And and we were losing a lot of applicants in that window. So so what are the solutions? I think that as we move forward We have to we have to ensure that that of course and I know general gents and doll over this But as we look at future palms We have to make sure that we're palming the right resources and I'm not talking about just for bonuses typically when we tend We talk about palming we talk about we the first thing we talk about or how do we palm for bonuses? Bonuses or a short-term solution and don't solve the problems I'm talking about here a session bonuses and retention bonuses while they provide a short-term fix They do not fix the underlying conditions that are impacting our ability to recruit and retain today So so when I'm talking about palming I'm talking about palming for the right size recruiting force I'm talking about palming for the right marketing dollars and with the right messages and Quite frankly when it comes to the right messages I love the strategy sir that that that you and the building is undertaken because they push an awful lot of marketing dollars to The state the preponderance of the marketing dollars are pushed out to the states and we have to make sure we're using those it's great to print banners and To have smoke machines at football games, but but how are we reaching out using NCSA and other other venues for for radio pieces Putting successful soldiers not just recruiters, but successful soldiers who tell their story on radio local TV That sort of thing and making sure that we're countering that those hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of messages That are affecting our ability to recruit How or how are we using those marketing dollars? To reach out to make sure that our success are hundreds and thousands of successful soldiers are telling their story And and how are we linking? How are we linking? What we're doing with with bonuses and retention and with our skills to those high-end demand jobs that are available in your state right now That you're having a tough time filling that pay good good middle-wage salaries and incomes We've got to leverage these opportunities to tell our story and to get our young folks in the ranks again It's not just about bonuses And you know we have to also you know I intend to as we grow our prevention force I don't know about the other adjuncts general in here, but I'm inheriting. I'm getting about a in the end I'll have about 15 new positions on my joint force headquarters staff and If I were if I had my druthers, that's not where I'd be growing right now in my state That's not where I'd be putting additional resources, but that's where the resources are coming So we've got to use those resources to reach out to the community not just for prevention efforts in our staff But also reaching out in our to the prevention specialists in our communities to make sure that we're messaging What's really happening in the guard to make sure that we're we're messaging that it's not It's not just doom and gloom for our young folks that join the guard that we're here to support them And when our people leave the guard they're leaving the guard better than when they joined our ranks not worse And then last I think we have got to we have got to get behind duty status reform This is an important thing for I think for long term for retention if we thought it was coming we were right on the cusp of it and it it fell by the wayside because of some issues with funding and some Some things that were stripped up by OMB, but for long-term retention of our force. We've got to get benefits parody right We've got to get duty status is right We've got to get insurance coverage is right and duty status reform is the right way to get that done So we have to get behind that legislation I'm talking adjudance general now to get that address a legislation passed to get to get duty status reform fixed And that's all I have for now. I'll be I'll be here for question answer If you've got anything around the issues that I just talked about. Thank you very much And thank you general Jensen for the opportunity to present. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks John Thanks for your passion and your leadership as it relates to this topic and a lot of other Topics and our next our next presenter major general Tim Tomlinson again Is going to talk about Army Guard divisions and the way ahead for 2030s Tim. Thank you, sir. Hey It's a it's a great time to be one of eight Army National Guard division commanders as we re-establish the division Across the nation as the unit of action and move away from the brigade centric coin Back to the division centric environment So so while it's a great time to be in a command position. It's also an important time to be in Command position as we we strengthen that apparatus to be a viable asset for the Army and for the national defense strategy That we can be counted on to provide eight divisions to wherever we're at on the Spectrum of conflict to include large-scale combat operations as we frequently practice through warfighters through CTC rotations, etc so I'm going to step back a couple years to start and say Two years ago We went on a mission to make sure every division headquarters had aligned to it at least Three brigade combat teams a maneuver enhancement brigade a combat aviation brigade and a sustainment brigade And we did that with the geographic lens as the weighted criteria And then we had to pause for a minute and say we probably need Armor heavy divisions and light divisions out of the structure. We have in the National Guard. So so we did Version 2. Oh, I'll say and so now we're postured with two armored divisions Five light divisions and one composite light striker division across the United States with the the light divisions are pretty geographically centered State-wise, but all divisions are crossing state boundaries our two armored divisions are a little more dispersed But what each of the divisions now bring back into the Army fold? Are some histories and so in the 38th Every component of the 38th Infantry Division as it is reassembled today Fought in the Philippines on the island of Luzon in the Second World War the 37th brigade combat team from Ohio General Harris's state Fought hand-to-hand door-to-door through Manila The 76 brigades lineage Indiana National Guard. I was part of the 38th amphibious landing that turned south liberated the peninsula of baton and With that organization was the 149th infantry regiment which now belongs to Our friends in Kentucky General Hal Lamberton as the maneuver enhancement brigade and also on the island was the 33rd division at the time now the 33rd IBCT from Illinois that turned north and Destroyed the remaining command post in the northern jungles of the island so those brigades now I call it getting the band back together that we did two years ago are now part of the Avenger of baton Division 38th Division So each of our eight divisions Has some heritage piece like that that we bring back into the army now as we look at division-centric operations so now that we're organized our next task is really to modernize and The step that we're in the midst of is moving to a case series Mto or Mto change which is going to bring some more staff functionality Into space cyber and electronic warfare Posturing us better for multi-domain operations though. We won't have the capability necessarily to execute We will have the staff functions inherent in our formation that can understand speak the language make the request do the interactions with multi-domain task force on and apply those pieces to the division fight so and Modeling shows that we will perform best when brigade commanders are fighting the close fight and the division is synchronizing these assets For the deep fight and shaping the next the next modernization Currently ongoing with three de Vardy's Established division artillery brigades and the remaining five to be established Prior to FY 28 so In the 38th Our new commander colonel jones sitting in the front row We'll take the flag at the 38th division artillery here in a few weeks The 34th is already Established and we will get the division artillery is re-established in the army national guard structure Next modernization step is either converting or fielding Intelligence and electronic warfare battalions. So in four cases supporting four divisions, we will convert a existing mi battalion Into an intelligence and electronic warfare battalion and in the other four divisions cases. We will field new Structures so the conversions will happen 25 and 26 and the new structure fieldings 27 and 28 so what we're now posturing with A modernized force structure and then we'll We will modernize with the army in other areas as that becomes more apparent And what we really have to do is stay engaged as to Walk the modification of the brigade combat team is on the light and and motorized side and and how that works and how we Reestablished division cavalry so Really what we can do there is be engaged with cac with tradoc and in forums where Uh, they offer us regularly a voice and a vote on how we would like that structure to go forward So we will we will work that Into the future into the army of 2030 and the divisions of 2030 and beyond And then if we take The r out of rearm Regional we if we grab that going forward the army national guard issued The rearm order which aligned four divisions geographically Pointing two towards europe and fifth core and two towards The pacific and first core So as we advance and establish those relationships those divisions will work then with the established multi-domain task force that are established under those Army service component commands and combatant commands in those theaters through repetition and modernization and so So we have we have a way ahead. We have a plan We'll continue with repetitions of large-scale combat operations through divisions war fighters Bringing those maneuver enhancement brigades Combat aviation brigade and sustainment brigades Into that habitual rotation Um, we can't always get our brigade combat teams in there. But what we do is Two brigade combat teams per year have a ctc rotation and four to five others have an xctc rotation. So we'll we'll find Lessons learned. We'll early implement techniques To move to 2030 and we'll continue to practice. So I look forward to your questions That completes my opening remarks. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Tim. I appreciate that lay down of Of the 38th infantry division that little historical perspective. I think is is fascinating Our next panelist member that will speak again on datacentricity is breeder general stef war bath stef Good morning. So I get the fun The fun ambiguous term of datacentricity It's an approach to software development application development Which we know all our entire world our civil society is all based on use of applications And so this approach is where the data is at the center Now what's implied is what happened to the program? Where is the software? Where is the coding and in in datacentricity the software program is ephemeral For any scrabble lovers out there Ephemeral it's it's short lasting It's constantly changing And this is by design and I understand it's a little bit of a squishy Term so get let me give you two tangible examples operational use by states to really kind of show The benefit and value of datacentricity Okay, the first example is about state active duty Pay pay to the soldiers who are performing state active state active duty. We know that states Many states are increasing state active duty deployments for national guard soldiers for emergency response COVID relief civil unrest hurricane relief support Fires we are seeing an increased number of soldiers that are on state active duty There is not One good application that accurately records soldiers performance Connects to DFAS to make a payment for the For the act of duty performed that is in line with the state or territory prescribed payroll processing now that was an issue it's been an issue for many years when When state active duty was infrequent now it is a larger issue and the state of minnesota like many states looked for a solution After reviewing what was out there on the market They went with an in-house development The state of minnesota j6 and the data processing was able to develop an application that accurately records Soldiers performance from the from the day of insect, you know in the day they start the active duty to the end of duty Providing multiple benefits An accurate personal status reporting to the commander and then even more importantly an accurate and timely payment to the soldier Following their performance when they came off of A duty, you know, so when we When we activate soldiers we pull them from their work we pull them from their families It is nice to know that we now have the ability to pay them for the service that they have rendered From a project management perspective Application project management perspective. It's quite stunning The state of minnesota was able to develop this application in four and a half months With four staff members only and those four staff members were gs 11 and gs 12 So you can do the math. This is a very low cost Application and they used infrastructure that was already in place a web server and a and a sequel back-end server They're able to ingest Personnel records for army air civilians. They're able to connect and Ingest information from defas financing and they were able to apply the business logic of state of minnesota's Financial system and this all of this work in four and a half months enabled not only accurate reporting minimal greatly reduced administrative manual key entry and in sending around spreadsheets To execute the mission and then pay the soldier with an accurate and timely automated Electronic funds transfer Okay, so that is data centricity the ability to bring data together quickly code A application for a specific need a specific mission Okay, second example comes from the great state of texas Where the j6 is assembled a data analytics team This data analytics team was formed out of the knowledge management branch that was looking for better covet report tracking But what happened like many times in technology when something is working and it's working well It explodes and now this data analytics team has put together 70 different dashboards Now I would love to talk about all all 70 and if you want to come find me after the panel But the couple that are most relevant here today are the dashboards that were put together for the 36 Infantry Division Commanders all the commanders the battalion commanders the brigade commanders and the division commander in order to understand personal personnel issues critical personnel bills So when we're asking the question or when the 36 is asking the question Is there a pa that can go with the brigade on a deployment? Or is the pa involved in covid missions because right now We are dealing with simultaneous state and federal missions That dashboard developed by the j6 pulls together all that information in one page When the battalion or the division has to answer do we have a 17 alpha? Who's going to go on a deployment or is that 17 alpha in training? That dashboard can provide that information That is data centricity when we are when we are developing analytical tools that address commander's critical information requirements Okay So quickly, you know, what is data centricity the ability to ingest the data Code around it that is very specific to commander's critical information needs the mission And also the operational environment It is good to have those local developer Local developers that are in proximity of the command post, right? So they can hear what are the information needs they understand the mission more thoroughly and they quickly Translate that into an application or an analytic tool And finally most importantly, I think what we've seen with the data centric applications developed by the states They do not just identify the problem. They don't identify the problem that well security clearances are low in this unit or there's Severe pay issues for soldiers in this unit these applications prevent the problem from happening in the first place or they work to isolate the problem and help Correct the problem What What data centricity is not it is not a consolidated or centralized application As a matter of fact data centricity is in many ways just the opposite. It is more distributed computing a rapid application development Consolidating and centralizing to one monolithic application Is fraught with issues access control issues data quality issues feature enhancement issues Right now we are seeing data quality issues in ips a as evident by the Number of corrective memos that soldiers have to write to in when they are submitting their A selection packet board. So if they're going to a promotion board or they're Competing for a school and they have to submit a packet We are seeing numerous times where the soldier had to write a corrective memo saying I did attend this training This is my personnel status, but it's not correct in ips a What else um data centricity is not it is not emailing spreadsheets And in powerpoint presentations, you know the great songs of the 90s I had to write this down because I couldn't remember any of them, but Meatloaf I would do anything for love and and aro smith I don't want to miss a thing those songs are timeless But the technology from the 90s is not timeless It is time to move the data analytics out of the mailbox And so finally, you know, how does data centricity Meet the army campaign plan and and the directives and the initiatives of our of our leaders first the examples I gave to you today Totally actualize the army campaign plan people Modernization readiness when we developed an application that pays soldiers In a timely fashion for their state active duty. That is the care of the soldier That is taking care of the soldier and that will increase the propensity to serve as general harris had mentioned We believe that the applications that improve a user soldiers experience Will increase their propensity to serve and continue to serve in the national guard And we've already talked about you know modernization kind of creating something that didn't exist before and it reduces time It improves accuracy and increases operational efficiency Okay Now there's just one more thing I wanted to bring about bring up about the texas Data analytics team and developing the dashboards for the division what I think is very It's almost like exponentially improving the use of data because not only When you look at the division staff the division staff no longer has to deal with the flurry of emails and spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations and pushing data that's not as relevant as as if it is in one contained Record and everyone is using that same data source in in a variety of views So now you've opened up your staff to do more analysis And do more division coordinating activities because they're not chasing the spreadsheets in the inbox But there's also value in the fact that now the division is training on the use of dashboards And now the division understands how to manage a higher volume of data And we know that staffs have to manage a higher volume of data if they are going to Execute major contingency operations and conduct multiple multi domain operations Fending any questions, sir staff. Thanks. There's two two notes I'd like to make uh as it relates to the staff first of all, I didn't uh introduce her As it relates to her job position staff As of october of 2020 has been serving as the mobilization assistant to the director of operations j3 united states cyber command note number one note number two You probably can't see it from where you're at but staff's notes are on her cell phone her smartphone Meanwhile, the three gentlemen to her right are still using paper and pens. So Staff you're you are living your best life and I I appreciate that example You have to have a backup though. I still think it's good to have a backup And then finally again proof. Uh, don't answer your phone during a usa week when your boss is supposed to be on a panel Colonel Hammett is going to talk again about the army national guard implementation of the army's climates strategy Colonel Hammett. So first off, thank you, sir. Forgive me this opportunity I want to thank general ball yet She did bless me with notes last night at about six o'clock. So So yeah, she said, uh, you'll do great So I am colonel anthony hammett. I am the army guys national guard g9 I'm over all installations environment and energy activities So anything that you guys do with the training lanes Where the training lands new buildings old buildings, uh, which I know that we have quite a bit of I impact or touch some of those in some way. So The thing that I'm going to talk about this morning is the army climate strategy and a couple of Executive orders that may impact some of the things that you may want to do So I'm going to go through some dates to go through some executive orders if you want to jot them down That's great. Uh, I will give out. I'll dim out my branch chief A lieutenant colonel rob fenton who is my climate and energy branch chief who is working this and is Waste deep in working the climate change so Two things that I talked about the climate strategy and the directives listed in the presidential executive orders And that is one four zero zero eight and one four zero five seven So for those of you that are not familiar with those executive orders Zero eight was signed january of 21. So it's all fairly new. We're still working through it Place the climate crisis at the forefront of foreign policy and national security planning efforts It states the us will work with other countries and partners both laterally and multilaterally to put the world on a sustainable pathway Then in december of 21 executive order 57 was signed and established that the federal government would lead by example to achieve a carbon pollution free electricity sector by 2035 Sounds a long way out. But when you're looking for my lanes, it's not that far out And a net zero emissions economy wide by 2050 Shortly after that in february of 22 The secretary and the army published a message to the force which detailed her top six objectives for the army And one of those objectives is continuing efforts to be resilient in the face of climate change Later that month she signed the army climate strategy the first of its kind in the history And it was published to the field Outline within the strategy were three main lines of effort installation resiliency acquisitions programs and training for extreme weather conditions Some of the objectives include the optimizing of infrastructure resilience mitigating greenhouse gas emissions adapting land management to climate risks And securing future access to training and testing lands Second line is the acquisitions program basically looking at the ways to enhance operational effectiveness by reducing our resilience on fossil fuels Reducing sustainment demand increasing operational and contingency basing and strengthening climate resilience Third line is for the extreme weather conditions and those goals just include updating doctrine and training to prepare the army for a climate altered world So within my portfolio, I manage the installations and facilities through the 54 states and territories and districts of columbia This includes roughly 2400 readiness centers and 110 installations. We're also the second largest land holding command in the army So we work hard to ensure that we are in direct support of the line of effort number one, which is installation resiliency One of the objectives outlined in the army climate strategy under this line of effort Is to have micro grids installed on every installation by 2035 These micro grids will allow installations to run critical infrastructure and systems for up to 14 days during an emergency or natural disaster Of the 110 installations in national guards inventory only 14 of them currently have micro grids in place We're currently working the plan for sourcing the remaining 96 installations with priority going to the mfgis or the power projection platforms Currently we're working four micro grid projects one at camp shelby, mississippi Los alamitos joint training base california one at camp maybury, texas and one at camp atterbury, indiana The micro grid at camp atterbury will soon be tested to ensure it can handle the installations required electrical load during an emergency We're looking at completion dates for the other projects around 2024 In addition to these projects already in the works, we're actively seeking an estimated 360 million In funding to install the additional 46 micro grids at various locations At the same time army reserve and army are trying to do the same thing Another objective supporting Installation resiliency is to field an all-electric all-electric non tactical vehicle fleet by 2035 We are currently working with the 54 on transitioning their non tactical fleet of gsa vehicles to an all-electric fleet Within the army national guard. We have approximately 2500 non tactical vehicles that will need transitioning to electric Meeting the goal of an all-electric fleet by 2025 does present some challenges For example, right now we lack the infrastructure to support charging stations at our installations Our readiness centers and our maintenance facilities We estimate we would have to install approximately 1800 charging stations in order for there to be adequate Infrastructure to support an all-electric fleet the estimated cost to install these charging stations is roughly 135 million dollars In addition to the challenge and lack of infrastructure to support these vehicles We run the tyranny of distance within our states And this is something i've actually talked to all senior leadership over in osd and asa And army national guard g9 and just the distance that we have to deal with So we have Duty where vehicles have short distances well the active duty has Viscals that only have short distances to travel in our installations. We are spreading miles and hours apart We don't just need a vehicle charge to drive around fort hood of fort benning and general ballyette stresses this all of time We have places like fort california fort wyoming fort texas fort florida. That's what we push out to them We're currently working with the army g9 to allow the national guard look at using a combination of electric and hybrid vehicles This will allow us to decrease fossil fuel consumption Reduce greenhouse emissions and still work towards the goal of an all-electric fleet We're also actively working towards expanding the army compatible use buffer program a cub This program is voluntary system of local partnerships that preserve private lands adjacent to national guard installations This partnership allows for the land those lands to remain in its natural state Create a buffer that enhances the physical physical security for our installations And stops incompatible development of land by outside commercial organizations The army national guard manages 1.9 million acres of land across the 54 And has active a cub programs and 12 of our installations located in 11 states A great example of the success of the a cub program is the one located can't shelby mississippi Their a cub program is able to sequester the equivalent of 120,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually or roughly 2,500 average households carbon emissions each year So not only do we need to look at our use of land But we need to ensure that we are building energy efficient structures when designing our new facilities Our goal for all new military construction project is to achieve lead silver certification by the us green building council This certification takes into account such things as the facilities energy savings Water efficiency co2 emission reductions and the overall stewardship of resources Because our budget does not allow for the replacement of 100 of our facility inventory We must work every day to make sure our current structures are more efficient We do this by using the latest technology and science to retrofit and modernize our existing facilities For example, buildings are being retrofitted with energy efficient windows low flow toilets and lead lighting We're using latest in energy efficient building materials and installing facility control systems to help regulate the heating and cooling of our buildings All of these efforts are helping to reduce greenhouse gases and get us closer to accomplishing the golds laid out in the army climate strategy The army guard is adhering to the army climate strategy by constructing micro grid projects Incorporating alternate energy sources Transitioning to an all-electric non tactical vehicle fleet and retrofitting our facilities to improve energy efficiency and savings As secretary wormus has stated Climate change isn't a distant future. It's a reality and it must be addressed now We in the army national guard are doing just that. I would like to say thank you for your time And if you have any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them Very good. Thanks, anthony And so what we'll do now is I'll transition over to the lieutenant colonel rob perino and he'll moderate questions From the audience. So at this time if you have a question, please identify yourself and uh, colonel perino will call on you Thank you. Sir. Thank you. And uh, thank you also for, uh, announcing Pre-gergeneral whore vast position earlier. I had said that we have two agendas general We have one tag and one assistant j3 at us cybercom So if anybody here has a question on data centricity or anything else I ask you to form up at the microphones and I will call on you Um, if you are a member of the media a reporter I ask that you hold off on your questions Because we are holding a media engagement around table in room 140 Bravo Following this all of our guests will be there to take questions from media So for other members of a usa if you have any questions, please join us here at this time Yes, please sir Hey, good morning. Greg knight. I'm the adjunct general From the state of vermont. I see a lot of my fellow tags here John coming back to the propensity to serve And I wanted to talk a little bit about what i'm finding at least anecdotally right now So i'm the vice chair of the national joint diversity executive council general barry And what i'm finding in vermont and may be really a microcosm That propensity to serve is greater in the new american community I could tell you the story of hossain sadeek A young man combat engineer Who's uh from somalia Came here at eight years old and he was what he told me was I couldn't believe I could have a glass of milk whenever I wanted He's now in our guard going to uvm University of vermont as an engineer engineer student and we're paying I can give you 10 stories like that off the top of my head So for me as a guard i'm certainly going to do it in vermont. I don't need anybody's permission But I think as a guard we're probably better served to grow our diversity and go after those populations that are under In our organizations and the other benefit john you brought it up. You know what they don't have? A genesis record So there is that And the other thing I wanted to bring up and I've been banging the drum with my folks for a couple of years now We've really got to do a better job going after that prior service market. I know we have isrs. That's great Um How aggressively are we estates if I've got somebody for instance relocating to the northeast? Why aren't they considering the vermont national guard if they're coming off their first term in particular? I'm missing a global opportunity if we're really not going after that Full bore as far as I'm concerned because keystone enlistments as you note We look at the meps data that I got from the j1 general jensen. You've certainly seen that when you look at the success rate Coming out of meps for a production enlistment off the field I think the number was 67.9 So within the army national guard. Okay. I'm not a math person, but that's a third Pretty close and then you add to that the 20% no shows That's starting to sound like 50 of the applicants that we're working We either don't get them to meps or they don't make it through meps But those are my observations are we appreciating leverage you can apply to either, uh, but we can grow our diversity and I think Um, again, I'm going to keep doing research on it But we're growing it because of propensity to service there where it may not be with us citizens that are natural born. Thanks Thanks for the question Greg I would just say I think I'd highlight one thing as it relates to uh, you know prior service I think there's there's there's two parts of that population There's the prior service population that leaves service completely And then and then tries to come back and then we have our active component to reserve component transfer And and I will tell you out of new enlistments prior service enlistments and that active component to reserve component We came closest in meeting the mission on ac to rc And so a lot of credit out there for our national guard counselors that are at many if not all of our active Component uh installations The other thing we're working with as it relates to prior service as you're aware of we continue to work with uh tradoc In order to shorten the training requirement for service members Out of the air force and the navy as they transition into the army national guard instead of going Through a complete basic training experience having a shorter experience We believe that that makes that transition more attractive for non army and non marine prior service soldiers, but Acknowledge all your points there. Thank you And so if I could add one thing I couldn't agree with you more greg especially on the on the diversity issue again I'll go back to what I said We ought to be reflective of our communities and I think we ought to work the diversity problem backwards Instead of saying we need to go get more of these and more of these we should first stop and ask ourselves Is is is my are my formations reflective of their communities? And and if they're not then why? and if we have issues that are preventing those Those uh, you know those those folks this is their second nation from recruiting them What are they is it do we need is it is it english as a second language? Is it the asfab? Is it what are those things that are preventing those people? From joining our ranks and we have all these diversity tools What's the right tool in the toolkit to get after solving that problem sometimes we tend to collect tools To say that we have them, but what's the right tool to get after that problem? So again, we need to ask that question. Are we reflective of our communities? If we're not reflective of our communities, what do I need to do as a leader to get us to that point, right? And and and a couple of things have come up I've talked to a couple my fellow adjunct generals this this asfab test Particularly english as a second language is a huge huge barrier for some of our communities out there One other thing if I could I think comes back to messaging and you and you spoke about that earlier and kind of getting ahead of it I think a lot of new americans Probably most folks in the state of vermont don't understand that if you are here as a lawful permanent resident You can join the guard and that can expedite your citizenship process So I think again it becomes back to messaging and us getting that word out, but that's on us Thanks All right. Good morning. I'm a current resort from french army reserve My question is about training as you will Go into the division model mdo that will that mean more training To get to the right level of readiness and that additional training if How would be compatible with a guardsman life? Having to share his work time between civilian and duty Thank you Yes, sir, so If you have hit on a very valid Concerned so our model is 39 days per year I'm fortunate enough to be a division commander that went through a warfighter exercise that Required some additional training We work that in a number of ways Some of our soldiers volunteer for additional days for additional training And if they don't then we honor the 39 day a year model. So it's it's a lot But really what you've got to look at is holistically What is the institutional army? Going to provide for us through their education system So so they come in with that and they plug that into the staff section or the formation And we Take that institutional knowledge and then we do the operational Reps through warfighters or command post exercises, etc It's it's not easy and As you as you work that in the french reserve it will not be an easy answer there either because our constraint Both our greatest asset is our people our greatest constraint is the time So we've got to be very good. I I focus a lot on Army FM 7-0 unit training management and that doesn't matter whether it's mdo or or what it is But if you plan and resource your training in advance Then you can get it executed within the time constraints. That's a great question. Thank you Thank you, sir Hi, go ahead. Please introduce yourself. Hey, good morning captain Andrew Hansen I'm here in my in my civilian capacity, but on the M. Day side a company commander with first battalion 194th armor regiment first brigade 34th ID General Horvath you signed my OCS commissioning At the RTI in in minnesota, so it's good to see you again So simple simple question, but it may get More complex. What issues are frictions? Do you foresee us? Getting into going into army 2030 specifically around people talent culture and a knowledge base to succeed With competing interests in the in the commercial sector pulling talent away from the army I think it's the national guard is in a unique position to capitalize on Soldiers that have talent in the civilian and the and the military so Take it however you want Yeah, okay, so I'd like to break that up just a little bit and ask maybe A couple of our panel members to talk about a particular piece of of this As it relates to people john, maybe you can take that part on it. Steph I'd like you to take the talent piece on this and specifically I think what you were talking about was local Local developers of data-centric application. So how do we how do we attract that talent? How do we manage that talent? And then and then tim if you could just take the culture Piece of that does that sound good? All right, and then if we if we don't get to the whole entirety of your question Please follow up again. So john, maybe the the people part of this thing and our media 2030 Yeah, first, uh, I will just a quick comment on the talent piece I think that I I couldn't agree with you more that that the national guard's the best place for that talent Because a component a thing that we don't We sometimes don't talk about is how we also have this domestic response requirement making that talent available to the governor Why that while that may be cyber professionals or whatever you name it as we grow these new skill sets Uh, we also have a requirement to respond Uh to our governors and to the people of our states also So having that talent available organized in an organized way and available to the governor is very very important I think that the most critical thing that we have to do between now and 2030 is build trust And this is on the people's side, right? We have to rebuild Uh, what I what I believe is is an eroding trust because of the civil military divide Uh because of the polarization of this country again because of the politicalization of of many of our mission sets We have to be very deliberate about rebuilding or continuing or to stop the the erosion Of what appears to be the trust in And in our uniform services particular in our national guard again I think that goes back to being representative and representing our communities But more importantly and back to that same thing on messaging we have to And this is this is uh This is both a recruiting and retention problem Uh, if we you know, we someone mentioned self-actualized Soldiers self-actualized individuals. I think it was in this in this panel session Now if we look at maslow's high maslow's hierarchy, that's at the top of the pyramid And if we can't take care of the basic things like safety if we can't take everything's like paying bonuses on time Um, you know keeping their ipsa stuff, right simple things like that That we're at the bottom of the pyramid and that may sound pretty trite But the reality is you know, we if we can't take care of the love and the care and belonging piece Then then shame on us if we expect our service members our soldiers to be up here at self-actualization and doing pt Between drills all those other things that you demand of these high performing Individuals individuals. So again, it goes back to building the trust Uh, it's tough to do it's 63 full-time manning Um, and and I I it sounds like I'm doing a commercial here But the reality is if we can't take care of the bottom piece of that pyramid the foundation Paying people on time and taking care of them Then we're having a tough time building that trust at the top of the pyramid getting the things that we demand from our soldiers So again, if I had a bumper sticker, I'd say our goal between here and now in the 2030s building trust Both within our ranks and within our communities Okay, thanks john staff Okay, that's a really significant question, right Getting at the the people talent retention. So I'm glad I signed your paperwork In in my answer is going to be most about that the technical or information workers that we want to try to retain But we we know that oh my goodness There's so many amazing folks in the in the in the guard with their engineers or teachers nurses there's There's all those wonderful skills, but in the tech world you know allowing To develop and retain local developers Really, there's a couple things one To have some time to do some experimentation Technology is really moving to open source We've got applications that are exploding every day and so When traditional soldiers or full-timers just have a little bit of time to think about a problem And then they have some resources To actually experiment. So the experimentation is important interesting about the texas data analytics team They developed a data analyst That person existed was a full-timer and was curious and growth mindset and taught themselves everything about How to be a data analyst and then they developed a team and we have to understand that just because you don't have that mo s Doesn't mean you can't do technology understand python or understand on some sort of application And then finally I would say it's important to reduce the administrative burden Whether on the on the traditional soldier or our full-timers If we can use data centric Applications that accelerate the Workflow reduce manual entry then we can maybe shift in focus to Other activities and so I think that's also kind of an indirect way in which we Hey allow folks more time to experiment and understand and develop themselves and that will drive that purpose and retention Thanks, Tim Hey, so I I see this this talent competition at a couple of places The first is company great officers Just like you so as as our company great officers move out of college into the private industry Get married if they so desire start to have children start to advance on their civilian career They hit this tough spot and usually it's about captain to major There's this hard spot and and this is not new. This was my generation as well I think what's a little different now is the propensity to To go ahead and check out and we lose an incredible amount of talent of company great officers that leave the formation And they go on to succeed in civilian businesses. They go on to b ceos They go on to own their own companies, which is a lot of our garden to do as well So I I think there are a couple of ways and then I wanted to add I think we hit an nco A talent piece there as well somewhere e6 e7 ish We kind of hit that same threshold So I I believe we counter this in in a couple ways where there is always going to be competition with civilian employment family in the Guard For our traditional force it's always going to be there So we have to provide predictability as a counterbalance to that so The the long war taught us some pretty bad habits They taught us that hey, we'll throw money at more training days and we'll just expect that people show up Money is not the answer more training days is not the answer when we're when we're looking at high performance individuals Competition predictability is is Is the problem the other thing we have and and no one can equal And it's why most of us are sitting in this room is because we are a member of a team that has a purpose greater than ourselves And in corporate america Cannot provide that and so so you get to kind of drive that intangible out there and say to really I I want you to be a part of this team I know you want to be a part of this team just this life is going through it And usually when I talk to company great officers or nco's in that stance I say if if you push through this there is it it'll come out. All right, but A talent management is tough retaining talent I think predictability and being a member of the team or how we counter it. Thank you And then I would I would just close at least this part of this With with perception as well and that we have to be very careful You know, we're talking about building the army of 2030 That doesn't mean the army is going to stop changing at 2030, right? So 2030 is a waypoint to 2040 right building the army of 2030 as we design And move out on 2040 So well, we have to be very careful with is this perception that If I'm not part of a modernization effort now, then I'm not relevant and and and what what you hear senior army leadership talk about is Is we're going to have a period of time where there's tiered modernization not tiered readiness Tiered modernization and and I would say that's the case across the army Almost every year of his existence not every unit across the entire army has the same level of modernization Whether it was 1995 2005 or 2020 2030 so did we did we get to your Your sweet spot. Yes, general. I think one follow-up is okay What are some issues that keep you up that we haven't solved yet? Oh Yeah, what keeps me up at night the issues that I we haven't solved sure if it keeps you up it keeps all of us Yeah, we're all together. It's okay. Yeah, look, it's uh, I'll be quite honest with you It's how do we how do we maintain talent? How do we track and maintain talent, right? That look the united states army is all about our soldiers All about our families and for the reserve component all about our employers And as as tim laid out there's always friction between those those those three pieces Of a reserve component soldiers life Um and and that what we have to do as leaders is we have to take a long view of our organization And not a short view. It's not about your company command It's not about your battalion command. It's about the organization and the organization in in a in a life cycle here And and and we can't treat today as the most important day in the history of our organization Right, we have to we have to have a very long term look at our at our organization And we got to be very very careful Um Sometimes right sometimes you have to Uh sacrifice the future for for right now my my personal professional experience of that was Your organization as we were trying to get you ready to go to ntc In the middle of covet right and trying to protect you from having to do that duty because ntc was more important When we initially had a civil unrest in in in minneapolis after george floyd was murdered trying to protect your organization from that Extra duty, but you know what at some point we just had to do it We had to potentially put ntc at risk to meet the the closer obligation now ultimately it worked out For us. I say that I didn't have to go to ntc like you did but ultimately it it worked out for the organization But those were all very deliberate decisions looking at really what I thought was the best part or the The best interest of our soldiers and the organization of of your formation Okay, thank you. No, thank you Good morning. My name is second lieutenant lady and i'm from new mexico And now i'm here on a one-year ados tour at the national guard bureau Uh during my time is enlisted for three years as an e5 Then I was in charge of the retention program in new mexico after which they sponsored a direct commission. Thank you general aguilar Uh and and my assignment out here and so in that time Um, I did a couple things one I tutored approximately a hundred people to try and join the national guard everywhere from uh, honor roll students To professionals that were in the community and there was a commonality within that and that was We no longer know our times tables and it seems such like minutia But it's actually the difference between having someone raise their right hand Trying to tutor them for three months And so if I may and if you know I apologize if not for the edification of the room That approximately 1980 they did a pilot study of what the as fab Mean should be set out when we get a 50. That's not your score. That's what the average is right They took a collection of thousands of people and and they tested them like and that's where your mean That's where your average is that's your 50 in 1997 I believe that pilot study was done again where they took the same number of people The data sent they they redid the test and then they reset the average If it has been done since 1997, I am unaware of that being Changed what has happened since 1997. I was a music educator for many years in texas And so since 1997 now even second and third graders are being handed calculators You can bring calculators into the ACT the sat Even the high school g ed equivalence program And the only test that i'm aware of that you cannot bring a calculator in is the g re and with that they give you a four function calculator there on the computer And so with that recommendation Then I would like a consideration of all the the suggestions and the ideas I've had in my times in recruiting and retention And as an enlisted soldier for many years Is that I have two suggestions of things that would perhaps not be Nominal when it comes to like a significant amount of dollars You know, but something that can make a great impact would be the consideration of adding a four function calculator If you already don't know algebra putting a four function calculator won't give you that answer anymore And if we're in the if we think we're in the new age that we are then we're just frankly not in the area where Uh, you're going to lose a battle because you don't know what eight times seven is And so those days are just kind of behind us And so for something that can make a direct impact that could allow someone because when I tutor someone for three months We've already had this discussion that between that 90 and 80 and 100 days And sometimes I've tutored someone for over six months before they're allowed to raise the right hand And then you're praying that something hasn't changed within their life that prevents them from doing so So that would be my first consideration for that And then if you would like to respond or if you'd like to also hear the second I can do either well, yeah, so Quick response see the major general right to your right marty bissel look to your right right there, right? Marty works at trade-off Any suggestion and every suggestion you have please give it to general bissel there before you leave this morning But I have heard the army senior leadership Previous trade-off commander general funk talked that exact issue And understanding or trying to understand why why are we putting this obstacle in place? And so I from from an army perspective, and that's really all I can speak of I know there's a lot of interest in doing exactly what what you're what you're laying out is is that Why why are we not allowing students to use a calculator? On this so I think there is some energy Behind that. All right. We're ready for number two. Thank you So on the retention piece again of all the things that I would suggest In my time in retention and things that perhaps could have an impact one of the basics one basic one We've already had an example for two years and it has worked successfully And so when we're talking about the mausoleum's hierarchy of needs on on being Um competent in what we're doing and and putting through paperwork in a timely fashion to get those bonuses One of the things is during Covid we were allowed to have an exception to where the dates and the signature type did not have to match And I have brought this up in two retention workshops And and got buy-in to to everybody with everybody in the room in the 54 In that we would like a continuation of the policy because for example First of all To be completely candid there have been times when we have had aviation deployed And as we saw the previous year when when bonuses went away At 11 5th, you know at at midnight on june 30th Then we were at that point trying to just get people on the phone Like do you want me to sign send a picture of your of your signature? Like we were trying to do Everything that we can to get them the the bonuses the student loaner payment that was so rightfully earned by these soldiers And then also we have hardships in new mexico that I also saw was um from our our neighbors in arizona We still live in a society in a world We're not everybody has access to signatures getting on to the reservation You know to the navajo reservation to get signatures all on a day when they're ready to sign It's kind of like on recruiting or attention, you know Where the salesman when we have someone that's ready to buy versus they come back A month later and they're like hey, do you still want to sign? Well now my spouse says that there something changed in the dynamic and so we already have a template for this We're just asking for a continuation of that policy We now have a data set of two years where there wasn't Fraudulence there there wasn't any kind of nefarious acts that would make it You know impossible or not not a viable option And so since it is something that would make it easier on both the people that are trying to garner the signatures As well as then the soldiers to get everything processed timely that would be a small thing that could actually be impactful Yeah, okay very very good suggestion and and Roy I apologize. I I know you're no longer in our g1 shop, but greater general Roy mackereg Roy will take that over to the army guard g1 team and and we'll take a look at it That that's what I can promise you to see one Are we able to extend that if not why not but what I think it's I think you make some very valid points there And we will certainly take a look at that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much Okay, we've got time for one more audience member. We have the good retired sergeant major the enlisted national guard associations Good morning, sir Mac trends enlist association national guard. So my question ties into recruiting and retention again So the question I want to have sir is what is the national guard and writ large the army doing to leverage our relationships with Employers across the united states. So as we sit there and talk about the the needed relationships between service family and our employers And the propensity that we have to serve are we working through Even if I take a look at the the you know fortune 50 companies that amazons the walmarts That are desperately seeking the skill set that our military service members have To have them help us Recruit for our service. And what I mean by that is we see a huge population of individuals that transition from active duty into These organizations because these organizations want a skill set Have we looked at the possibility of saying hey, these are the skill sets that military service members in the guard have Would you be interested if you have employees within your organization right now? helping us pass the message and communicate at why A national guard service would not only help us as an army, but also help you as an organization with those employees To the panel members, uh, you want to talk about anything that you are doing at your state as it relates to uh to that effort Well, you oh, yeah, first of all, we've got ngps on our staff who First of all, let me say I think that that this is better done at the local level than from the national level I mean the national level can certainly resource it, but this is really about about relationships And and getting in front of those ceos and those hr departments and and and that's a task that we've given our leaders Because there's nothing like the brigade commander showing up to recognize an employer There's nothing like our ngp folks that are going in sitting down with their human resources professional doing that very That very thing that you talked about which is letting them know the benefits of a national guard soldier leader Coming into their ranks and then facilitating that relationship to include helping helping write resumes Helping convert those military skills to to what it means to that employer to that specific employer writing it from army language To their language something that they understand So so I think that's very difficult to to accomplish on a macro level again It's got to be resource from the macro level And I can tell you something that I think most of my fellow agis general are very aggressive about because Of the need for that relationship and quite frankly when we talk about that that cgo That gets to that that that that point in their career Where where there's a friction point or that non commissioned officer who gets that e6 e7 level where there there's so many other life factors happening That relationship with that employer becomes critical Critical at that point putting 2,300 people on state active duty for covet to put into the hospital those relationships become essential Because you may not have the same protections at the state level So I think it's something that agis general pay a lot of attention to doesn't mean that we can't do better or do more But again, it's best accomplished. I think at the local level And and engaging engaging brigade commanders and csm's company commander csm's battalion commander csm's that makes a difference That matters and our our partnership with esgr They're still in the business And we tend to sometimes overlook them when we're not deploying But they they they are looking I can tell you esgr is looking for opportunities for outreach and to partner with us on on outreach And nobody's in a better position to do that than the than the guard because the way we're structured in our states You guys agree with that Yeah, I think we undervalue our leadership training That we get as soldiers whether it's nco or officer education system either way and And in that balance You know the the service member is getting a value there and the employer is getting a value there and I I agree with john that it's I think this is best dealt with locally and it takes some finesse to be able to have those conversations but But I think the leadership training we put our nco's through and put our company grade officers through those those Corporations are What would they pay for the equivalent of alc? All right as its leadership training Tens of thousands of dollars. Maybe maybe more And someone mentioned this morning. I just want to point this out I was one of my fellow adjuncts turner You know we we tend to emphasize to the employer. Listen, this is this is great leadership training This is what you get with a guardsman But do we tell that story the other way around again helping us build trust This person is a member in the national guard and their national guard participation help them receive a promotion at work or They started as a in this position and now they're in this position in their guard leadership experience Do we tell that story the other way? To benefit ourselves. We work very hard. We work very hard to make sure that that they understand us Our hiring our guardsmen, but do we do we leverage that to tell the guard story? Sir one So we talk about skill sets, you know this soldier brings a skill set to Uniform service or they bring the skill set to work. I think we should start talking about personality traits I mean, this is we know that service members have phenomenal personality traits. They're very dedicated They're responsible and they show grit, you know, Angela Duckworth's grit Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Those personality traits Is what drives a person to perform whether in uniform or out of uniform and as far as like the relationship Between you know, army national guard and employers it does require Engagements and the state of minnesota has had a blue ribbon beyond the yellow network for many many years and beyond the yellow network Is a formal recognition a company who demonstrates They support military. They hire military. They're at transitioning and career fairs when they demonstrate that they are Military friendly They are actually recognized and celebrated and it's a decree signed by the governor And it's a big formal recognition for that employer who who goes the extra length for service members They provide those benefits to service members. So I think having some sort of way to formally recognize employees is a way to actually Build that relationship and then have those conversations at those ceremonies with employers to understand what you know, what's happening and so Some sort of formal recognition for employees is key Okay, thanks. Hey, uh, two two items here, uh, as we as we close out item number one If we could just have a round of applause for our panel members here John tim staff, uh, anthony, thanks for thanks for your time today Thanks for your preparation today and and your passion and finally point number two just a reminder At 1700 this evening the national guard reserve reception room 150 bravo We will reconvene. So with that rob, I'll turn it back over to you for a closure Roger that sir. Thank you again everybody and just For your awareness general jensen and and our guests will have no more than 10 minutes to remain here So please take that into consideration as you you know, say hello and and chat some more Sir, thank you very much again. Thank you