The Importance of the Guard and Reserve

We discuss the critical role played by the National Guard and Reserves with retired Arizona Air National Guard Commander Major General Ted Maxwell.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
We all owe them, but very few of us know them.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
They are the men and women of our military and
first responder communities, and these are their stories. American Warrior
Radio is on the air.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Wellolaisa, gentlemen, Welcome to American Warrior Radio. This is your host,
Ben buler Garcia American Warrior Radio broadcast from the Silencer
Central Studios. If you're thinking of getting a silencer for
one or more of your weapons, there's never been a
better time to do so. For a limited a time,
our friends at slender Central will pick up the cost
of your tax stamp on select suppressors.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
That's a two hundred dollars value.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Visit silencercentral dot com to confirm if only a soundzer
is legal in your state. They'll then complete the paperwork
for you and ship right to your front door, making
silence simple. Silencercentral dot Com. Having supported the military for
most of my adult life and also having serve as
a volunteer with the employer support of the Guard Reserve
for a number of years, few things chat might hide

(01:06):
more than when a civilian uses the term weekend warrior,
particularly if they use it and if their intent is derogatory.
During my time with the employee support of the Guard Reserve.
I came across numerous amazing stories or the sacrifices our
Garden reservist maker, our civilian soldiers and sailors and airmen
and marines, and their employers who also make sacrifices in

(01:26):
order to support their employees to choose to serve our
nation in uniform.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Our Guard and.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Reserve volunteers are no less qualified and no less committed
than our active duty members. A perfect example if you
saw the movie you read the book Loan Survivor that
rescue that took place on that cliff side in Afghanistan
was completed by a group of reservists, Air Force per
rescue reservists joining me to help an old mark warrior
radio today to help me make my case for full

(01:53):
respect for Garden reservists. Ted Maxwell. Ted served thirty four
years and the military. Retired as a major general and
eighteen He's got over forty three hundred flying hours, predominantly
in the F sixteen aircraft. His last military position appropriate
today's conversation was his adjutant General, which meant he was
a commander of the Arizona Air National Guard. That was
twenty seven hundred airmen flying F sixteen's Case one five

(02:17):
and MQ nine Reaper aircraft. TED Welcome back to American
warri Radio or is this your first time?

Speaker 2 (02:23):
This is my second time.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
I appreciate you having me on the radio. Last time
it was an incredible show, including the other guests that
came on at the same time.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
We're talking on Veterans Dight.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Last time we were, and so I always appreciate. I
appreciate what you do, Appreciate all the success you've had
with this show and spreading the message about the values
of service, and it's not just military, it's service first responders.
Everything you deal with on American Warrior Radar really captures
that side of it. I just want to clarify my
final position as before retirement was Commander Arizona Air National

(02:54):
Guard and assistant Adjutant General for Arizona. So it's it's
divided a couple of ones. I wouldn't want to General
Guire to hear somebody call me the adjutant general when
I was his assistant on the airside. But I was
the commander of the Arizona Air National Guard and they've
taken that title away now that and changed the way
they address it. But bottom line is I did have

(03:16):
fifteen years in the active duty. I was a graduate
of the United States Air Force Committee Academy and then
went into the active duty, flying predominantly of sixteenth through
that time. And then I joined the guard really thinking
it was going to be five more years and get
to my retirement and move on. And what I found
is being a full time guardsman and then at the
end of my career a part time guardsman was incredibly rewarding.

(03:37):
And to your point, there is no such thing as
a true weekend warrior.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
When I first broached the subject with you, Ted, I
could almost visualize the steam coming out of your ears
on the other end of the phone as well, because
you obviously feel strongly having served in that position.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
As I drew about that, and I don't know, I
guess maybe you know.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
But it seems like that's since our modern war, since
our Rock and Afghanistan, that I see people use that
reference a lot less, and that makes me happy.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
The reality is, some times some things have changed over
the years, particularly after the Cold War when when the
when the wall came down, and then we had the
First Golf War, which was a highly successful UH and
quick UH war to get to the to the inframe
of what the goals is laid out by President Bush

(04:33):
were achieved of preeing or bringing Kuwait back to the
proper government and the give them their sovereignty. There was
a movement at that point to make a significant reduction
both in active predominantly in the act of duty force.
We hit an all time high at that first goal
four of about one point nine million members of the military,

(04:56):
and we are a third less than that now for
the active duty personnel.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
Well, let's let's back up a little bit too, because
I find that interesting if you look at our history,
we were never historically, the United States has never maintained
a real large standing army until well, well, World War
II was one of the breaking points, and as I understand,
that's the first time we actually we had a small
standing army. But then we utilized the draft and activated

(05:22):
the reserves to fill the needs for that huge war.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
It's really interesting you do a little history and you
look at some of the generals and the colonels, you know,
like patent that made colonel during the First War. As
soon as it was down, we drew down that standing army.
It's defined in the Constitution, and that's why you hear
a standing navy, because there's always need for coastal and
other but it's just to support the army. And what

(05:50):
became out of the army the air side of the argument.
So they historically haven't been standing until World War Two,
when we said never again with this idea we thought.
After World War One, we took our army down, and
then when World War Two came, it took several years
for us to get involved in the war because we.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Had to build it up.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
The President actually federalized the Air National Guard training, which
turned that spun those soldiers and not yet airmen, but
there were flat pilots up to prepare for the war.
But it also was the first time we used the
civilian draft, and after that we kept the draft in
place for almost thirty plus years before we took the

(06:34):
draft down, and we still register for the draft in
case we needed again.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
I believe or not.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
MAYA class was the first to have to register when
when President Carter reinstated in the draft. I'll never forget
that was in nineteen seventy nine. So but that's so
I mean, and that we drew down after World War Two,
but then this funny little thing called the Cold War
came along and we saw the perceived massive threat from
then the Soviet Union. So we had to maintain in

(07:00):
a way to have a quick turnaround on our military personnel.
But let's go back a little even further, because tell
me ted the distinction between the Guard and the reserve.
What's the main differentiating factor?

Speaker 1 (07:16):
The main factor is Title ten. The US the Army reserves,
the Navy reserves, Air reserves. The only service yet that
doesn't have a reserve force is Space Force. But there
is actually movement in Congress now to create that, so
I think you're going to see it because it makes sense.
It is the reserve force for the active duty federal military,

(07:39):
and that is intended to be able to be brought up,
called up as necessary, and activated when in time of need.
But they served purely at the pleasure of the president.
The National Guard was initially started started long before anything
else any other military in our country, because we weren't
a country yet. December THIRTI the thirteen or sixteen thirty six,

(08:02):
in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, they created three military regiments
that were formed to support and defend at that time
against members of the Peacote tribe and provide security and
structure for those early settlements. So that is the history
that we take as guardsmen. That we've been in existence
since sixteen thirty seven.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
So the legacy of the National Guard is really the
original militia, and I that's why we've got the or
minimans in the crest. That's exactly together.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
You nailed that one, Ben.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
And the thing was at that time, each colony would
have its own militia, and so it was more of
a individual states. Individual colonies would have their militias, and
that's why they were serving to the leaders of that
state or that colony. And when a guardsman takes the

(08:55):
oath of office, we actually saw our allegiance to the
President United States and the governor in my case of
the state of Arizona, and we follow their directions.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
So you're having to swear allegiance to two constitutions. That's
absolutely true. That's very interesting. I don't think I've ever
heard one of those oaths of enlistment. I should probably
maybe get on that. That could be very curious.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Well, it's a great structure because the Guard is expected
to do more things than just serve and protect against
enemies foreign into mess.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
And we'll get into that after the break. Ladies and gentlemen,
there's your host, Ben Buler Garcia. We're talking with retired
Major General Ted Maxwell. We're talking about a critical part
of our nation's defense that is often overlooked and sometimes
well portently by the splaying community.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
Stick around, we'll be back. Don't forget.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
You can find over six hundred podcasts at American Warrior
Radio dot com. Please please share these important stories with
their friends and associates.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
We'll be right back.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
Welcome back to American War Radio. Lads and gentlemen, This
is your host, Ben Ula Garcia. Lewis Millett joined the
Massachusetts National Guard in nineteen thirty eight. He then deserted
to Canada in nineteen forty one because he wanted to
get to the war sooner. He rejoined the US Army
in Africa, and there he received a Silver Star for
driving a half track of burning ammunition away from exposed troops.

(10:34):
He also received a conviction for his earlier desertion and
then a battlefield commission to second lieutenant. In the Korean War,
he received a Medal of Honor and a Distinguished Service Cross.
Each was for a daring Baynett charge and two fights
took place within four days of each other. Just want
to tell you that about that because there's Ted and
Maxwell and I are talking about people. I don't want
to say they frown out, but they used to be

(10:55):
the weekend warrior thing. They're not real, real soldiers, real
airm and real sailors. But you know, there's a there's
a story of a guardsman who I'd say, yeah, Medal
of Honor, pretty good.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
That works. There's no doubt.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
The thing people forget is our number one source for
members of the Garden Reserve is the active duty because
a lot of times when you join the active duty,
you might sign up, but you know, if you enlist,
it could be three, four or five years if you
go through some specialized training, you know, like pilots, where
it's going to be six seven, eight, But a lot
of times you're not making it to twenty years. But

(11:28):
you still have a desire to serve well. One of
the ways you can do that is as a National
Federal Reservist or as a member of the either the Army,
National Guard or the Air National Guard. The majority of
the folks we get are highly trained when we get
them well, and people need to understand. I mean this
is if I'm not mistaken. I was on the interwebsite,
so it's got to be true, right, But thirty eight

(11:48):
percent of our uniform military power is guardsmen. Yes, it's
come to that point. It's the numbers from a couple
of years ago and are slightly lower than that, but
it's garden or of makeup probably thirty eight percent total,
but about sixty in the active duty. And the large
majority of that reserve force is in the National Guard.

Speaker 3 (12:09):
And that would make them the eleventh largest army in
the world and the fifth largest air force in the world.

Speaker 4 (12:15):
That's pretty that's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
The interesting thing to remember is the here's where the
National Guard relies on the federal government, and I mean
a largest event because again we take the oath to
both the president and the governor. But all of the
equipment is owned by the federal government. So are the
F sixteens we flew out of Tucson International Airport for
all those years doing that. Those are owned by the

(12:38):
federal government. They're not the State of Arizona's sixteens. They
may have our flag on it because we're proud of
our Arizona roots. And you'll see every Guard unit their
tails designs show the states that they represent and who
they're doing. But ultimately we all know that if we're
going to be deployed, particularly in combat or to a
theater of concern, we're going as federal aim as are

(13:00):
active duty brethren. Sometimes we don't have as great or
modern as equipment, but I guarantee we bring a lot
of experience and knowledge. And that's why we bring folks
in who have a lot of experience and they get
to continue to serve and they're the ones that want
to stand up when it's time to go.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
I think something all people over look quite a bit also,
ted is operation. If I'm getting this right, Operation Noble Eagle,
the majority, if not all, of the domestic air protection
that's flown to keep our nation safe. Those reguardsmen, that's
the majority of it. Is absolutely true.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
There's a couple operational units at least eight years ago
when I retired, that we're still doing that mission.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
After nine to eleven occurred.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
It was less than forty eight hours or just past
that that we flew our first two F sixteen's.

Speaker 4 (13:49):
Only using only using.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
Training munitions to put them into the air. And when
the two pilots that were up that day, it was
led by Colonel Randy Hunter Straka, he said it was
ominous because they got airborne. And when he talked to
Albuquerque center was dead quiet after that, and he said,
how many aircraft airborne right now? Well, there's the two

(14:15):
of you west of the Mississippi, there's the two of
you over Arizona, and there's one up in northern California.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
A two ship. And that was it.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
So that became a immediate response, and over the next
several weeks it became a permanent response out It now
flown out of Davis monthan Air Force Base by the
Arizona Air National Guard, and it has stood up the
watch on twenty four to seven ever since, and we
don't see it going away. We see that's doing so

(14:44):
home of defense. That's one of the key tenants of
the of the Guard, both army and air, and that's
one of the reasons.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
So when our friends Russians and their bombers get a
little too close to the coast of Alaska, are those
F twenty two and f sixteen is going up to
greet them on those.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Guard I believe they are. I believe that they have
twenty two units. Actually I think it's reserves. I think
it might be reserves, but it's a It is one
of those things. It's a perfect mission for a traditional
guardsman or a reservist. Why because you come on for
two twenty four hours or maybe two days, maybe three,
depending how your organization does it, and then you go

(15:20):
back to your civilian job and you do what you do.

Speaker 4 (15:22):
I get confused at a little bit.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
So normally guardsmen reservists it's you know, one week and
a month, two weeks of training in the summer. But
there are there guardsmen or reservists who are actually full time.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
Oh, absolutely, Ben, that's a great question. There's a several
different status that you can be in for guardsmen, for reservists,
you're either activated, which you're on federal orders. But there
are a large segment of the guard, probably about between
twenty five and thirty percent nationwide that are full time guardsmen.
They run the operations, they're the one that build the schedules.

(15:57):
But then you've got the folks who come in to
perform the mission, you know, to do the flying, or
do the ground training, or come in for their weekends,
come in for their two years out of the year.
Those full time folks put all that together. But it's
changed significantly. We go back to the what we talked
about is after the Cold War and after the first
goal for the active duty numbers pulled back about thirty

(16:19):
three percent if we talk airframes. If we talk airframes,
there was one hundred and thirty four fighter squadrons in
nineteen ninety one at the end of the Cold War.
By twenty seventeen, it had gone down to fifty five squadrons.
Each squadrons generally has about twenty four aircraft. It's now
down to forty eight. So if you look at that number, yeah,

(16:42):
the personnel may have only reduced by a third in
the military overall, but the fighter air fighter squadrons reduced
by two thirds, and a lot of those are still
in the guard.

Speaker 3 (16:51):
I have to ask, it doesn't sound to me like
that's enough. I mean, we were after that, so we
might have.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
To have a whole another show to talk about that one, Ben,
but it is true we've drawn so far back. There's
more reliance on drones and aircraft like that than technology.
I mean, the one thing the active duty that you
won't see in the Guard as much is I believe
there is one F thirty five reserve squadron. You know,
there's a couple of squadrons that have been tagged in

(17:20):
the Guard to go to F thirty five eventually as well.
But a lot of the modern technology F twenty two
majority of them are all active duty. So a lot
of those technology forces that can't forward deploy in peace time.
So that's even a bigger burden picked up on the guards.
Guard units that fly think aircraft like the F sixteen

(17:40):
or the F fifteen or back the A ten before
it's drawed down, those units were deploying all the time
right next to their active duty brethren. And so it's
really since the Cold War, the reliance as a country
on the Garden reserve has increased significantly.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
Let me ask you real quick to I don't know
if there's a fair question or not, but yeah, we
talked about what got me started. That's the way the
civilians might look at guards when the reservist is just
the weekend warriors within the services themselves. When I'm serving
on the front line next to a reservist or a guardian,
is there? I mean, how do the active duty folks
feel about that?

Speaker 4 (18:15):
Is that okay?

Speaker 3 (18:16):
Now?

Speaker 1 (18:17):
And I think we've gone past that. I do believe
right now it is a total force. Okay, guard reserve,
active duty, active duty remains our first line of defense.
But you can't do it without the garden Reserve anymore.
And I believe the respect has gone to that level.

Speaker 3 (18:32):
Outstanding, ladies and gentlemen, there's your host, Ben Biler Garcia.
Here in American Warrior Radio. We're talking without retired Major
General Ted Maxwell, about our civilians, soldiers and sailors, airman, marines, spaces,
what guardians. Okay, I'm glad to remember that the guard
not yet the guardians, but we're getting there. Stick around,
we'll be right back. Welcome back to American Warrior Radio.

(19:15):
Ladies and gentlemen, there's your host, Ben Buler Garcia. We're
coming to you from the Silencer Central Studios. Silencer Central
is the largest salncer dealer in the world. For a
limited time, they'll even pick up the costs of the
tax stamp and selected suppressors. That's a savings of two
hundred dollars. Visit Silencercentral dot com to confirm if onning
a silencer is legal in your state, then select from
their huge variety of suppressors. They'll complete all the paper

(19:37):
for you and ship right to your front door, making
silence simple. Since two thousand and five Silencercentral dot com.
We're back talking with retired Major General Ted Maxwell about
our citizens, soldiers, sailors, airman marines, coast's and soundbee guardians. Ted,
you shared a story with me when you were deployed.
I think you were still active duty, but you were
deployed in Iraq and you were helping to task or

(20:01):
whatever the word is a lot of these guardsmen and reservists.
Of the pilots, you have sixteen pilots, but you said
something that I wrote down because it struck me. He said,
we had a lot of airline pilots. We're now flying
F sixteens or whatever it might be in the war,
and that created some real stressors. That was really in
the first Golf War. Okay that when folks were deployed

(20:22):
over there, there were a lot of guard units. Again,
we'd started seeing the shift. They wanted the guard and
the reserve units to be active and president there and
it was a surprise at that time to many of
the Guard units that were flying, was whoa, this can
take me out. I mean, many of those folks were
deployed for six months, and if you think about what
you get paid as a major or a captain flying

(20:43):
in the Guard versus what you get paid as an
airline pilot, they just weren't compatible. As part of the drawdown,
there were some units that lost aircraft, but there was
also a drawdown on some of the pilots. Some of
the pilots realized, Okay, in this new way the military's moving,
where we're going to reduce thirty three percent of our
man roughly, you know, we're going to drop from one
hundred and thirty four fighter squadrons to fifty five.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
We're going to be deploying a lot more. And they were.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
And one of the things that Arizona did, because we're
a training unit, we would supplement them with pilots because
they were going every year and a half two years.
The Guard, it was just an operations temple that had
not been sustained by the reserve portions of our military.
We're now the point where that's a way of life.
It's no longer what we would call a reserve. We
are now operational in the Guard and the reserves on

(21:34):
everything from the ground units. I mean that the entire
Second Golf Ward or after nine to eleven, there were
so many of the units on the ground were guarden reserve.
So it's changed because the drawdown on our standing active
duty Title ten Force, those others have come along. But
what happened was I told you about in nineteen ninety one,

(21:57):
the First Golf War, when we had that experience and
everybody started drawing down. But what occurred after that We
stayed in theater for a long time. We went to
more of an environment where we were there to ensure
nothing flared up, but nothing happened. Well what that turned into.
That turned into ten years of presence and we just

(22:19):
produced from one hundred and thirty seven to fifty five.
You know, we were in the drop, so so many
more airman deployed into theater to do those missions of
Operation Southern Watch, Operation Northern Watch to keep those keep
the flare ups from happening. And when I was over

(22:40):
there for the last time, I was assigned to Joint
Task Force Southwest Asia in riod and my specific role
was managing and operating the schedule for all the flights
that were going on. And you know, the Navy comes
into port, who do they want to see. They want
to see the jags so they can tell them what
they're going to do to get in trouble. They want
to see them, tell guy to tell them who's the

(23:02):
threats and what's where the hot areas are. And they
want to see the scheduler because they're they're in theater,
they want to fly. So I actually got to go
to the USS George Washington that front, but I was
regular active duty at the time. But what was mazed
me is the number of reserve and Guard units that
were over in theater flying. And when I joined the Guard,
I found out that that is just a continuing way

(23:23):
of life.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
Now.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
If we're going to deploy to a theater to either
as a presence, you know, as a preventative method, there's
a good chance that it's not just going to be
active duty, it's going to be both.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
I actually found a statistic to that said, in two
thousand and five, over half of the combat brigades deployed
in Iran came from the Army National Guard.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
It's true over half.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
That's well, And I'll be curious and we can touch
on this now and then maybe come back after the break.
But so I mentioned my volunteer time with the employee
support of the Guard and Reserve, and I was always
very basically part of my role was to go out
and to give awards to the employers for supporting you know,
the guardsman, the reservist would nominate their employer who you know,

(24:06):
supported them and their mission to serve our country. And
I was always impressed with that. But also as a
business person, you know, it's one thing if you're into
it or Amazon or General Motors, but you know if
your mom and pop, you know, threatning business and you've
got four employees and then twenty five percent of your

(24:27):
workforce suddenly has got to go out and defend the country,
that does create a stressor a burden on that employer.
Now I've never heard, well, I shouldn't say never, there was.

Speaker 4 (24:38):
We did. We did have lawyers involved.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
Sometimes where things did not the employer did not fulfill
their commitment. Very rare, but that I'm just curious when
I hear you say it, that's becoming.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
More and more of the norm maybe of how we
do this.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
Has anybody looked into it or thought about that backside
and the impacts back in the home.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
Front, Well, I think they do.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
And I want to thank you for all your service
with the the employer's support of Garden Reserve because that
was critical, and it was especially critical in those time
frames where maybe earlier in that existence in that organization
you didn't see it as often, but with the draw down,
you've seen all the time now and the majority of
those employers are stand up for their employees who have

(25:20):
said they still want to serve their country. But that
comes with a price, and it's hard, I'll be real honest.
It's way harder on the army guys than the air guys.
The air units generally will deploy for somewhere between three
and six months. For the Army, they generally will pull
their reservists or their guardsmen out, put them through specific
training for where they're going, and then they're going to

(25:40):
deploy for a full year. And that can be impactful
on the businesses that are losing quite often key personnel
in their cogs, especially if they're a smaller, smaller company.
But that's part of to me, the way our whole
nation looks at it. We understand the importance of what
we do throughout the world, and they are we have

(26:01):
folks who serve and folks who don't serve, but serve
those who serve and are willing to do it.

Speaker 3 (26:06):
From your perspective, Ted, would you say that we have
sufficient support infrastructure, because now hearing you say that, I'm
also thinking about the families. If maybe that person is
a single bread winner for the family and they're gone
for a year not earning as much. You know, they
might be a vice president of the company, but now
they're a sergeant, and you know, in the Guard, it's.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
A great point, a ben In.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
One of the good things is generally the reserve and
the Guard units, and I'm speaking mostly about the Guard
units have a whole support system for when those who deploy.
Quite often, you know, at the one sixty second we
would see our security forces deploy or our medical group
would deploy, and so we might have a little less
coverage for our day to day operations, but everybody was

(26:48):
there to support it. And we always had the folks,
both both volunteers and some military members that we would
put towards making sure that those families were taken care of.
And there's no doubt that everybody that did not go
would be looking out for those families. I do believe
we've gotten to the point with the continual.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
Deployments and we've seen it back off, and it's slow the.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
Pressure for many men and women who have served for
always being on the bubble to go. But the thing is,
there's a lot of young men and women the military.
Why we may not meet some of our recruiting goals
quite often, it is now because of the restrictions we
put on them, you know, drug use, physical fitness, you know,

(27:31):
certain grade acknowledgement. But there are still young men and
women today who will not hesitate to put their hand
up and go serve our country.

Speaker 4 (27:41):
That's very heartening. I'm glad to hear that.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
A quick question.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
I'm curious seeing how you've walked in both arenas. Is
it harder if I'm a guardsman or reservist? Is it
harder to prepare for deployment than it would be if
I'm active duty? Because if your active duty, you know
what's coming, you expect it. But here you are, you know,
working mom or working dad. And next thing you know,
you got to pack your duffo bit.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Luckily, we tend to try to have some notice on that.
But the big important thing is it's it depends how
much training you actually get and what the mission you're
going to do when you go. And that's why the
army tends to take them out, requalify them if they
haven't been to the range recently, re oriented their soldiers
with the job they do, and they have to really

(28:26):
be prepared. But that just makes that deployment longer and
it makes the time away.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
So it's tough.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
But it depends really what field and how much you
do your wartime mission.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
Okay, fair enough, ladies and gentlemen, there's your host, Ben
Biler Garcier. We're talking retired Major General Ted Maxwell about
our guardsmen and our reservis out there almost you know,
thirty forty almost forty percent for a military force and
how and consists of our citizens, soldier savers, ferman Marines
and coasters. Stick around, We'll be back and more.

Speaker 4 (29:13):
Welcome back to American Warrior Radio. Lasion.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
Gentlemen, this is your host, Ben Bula Garcia. You know,
one of the most dangerous missions on D Day involves
scaling the one hundred foot cliffs at Point to Hawk.
That was led by Lieutenant Colonel Earl Rutterer. He was
an Army reservist. He was wounded twice during that assault,
but he and his rangers got that job done. I
tell you that story because we're talking about guardsmen and reservists,
a critical part of our nation's military support structure. With

(29:37):
retired Major General Ted Maxwell Ted for our civilians out there,
I should have done this right off the top. But
major general two stars, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
That's correct.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
It's not like the officer court where you go, you know, lieutenant,
then you become a captain, and you become a major,
then a lieutenant. It goes the other way there. The
lieutenant is actually the three star in the general ranks.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
And that always interest excuse me, because you know, lieutenant
sounds like you're a general in training. And now I'm
with you, I think major should be three star. We're
talking about the guard reserve. Ted, you spent up had
thirty two years in our military. Some of it was
active duty, some of it was serving as the guardian.
We're the commander of the Arizona Air National Guard. At
the towards the end of your career. I still have

(30:19):
so many questions you you'd alluded to earlier in the
in the conversation about how when someone joins the guard,
they're they're raising their hand and they're swearing allegiance to
the two different constitutions, both the federal and the state.
To what extent though, does the guards work The kinds
of things they do also different than the active duty

(30:41):
because they're I mean, we're seeing them fight forest fires.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
There that you just nailed it, and that that is
what you do as a guardsman. You can go and
that's where some of the current deployments of guardsmen into
two areas is we're there to help. We routinely in
Arizona have guardsmen that are deployed fighting fire forest fires,
like you said, or supporting the fire and fighters who

(31:05):
are fighting it with food service logistics. You can be
called up in the fires. Out in California, you can
be called up in the flooding. I mean a lot
of times when you see folks in uniform out there
supporting flood victims and trying to help get people out,
those are members of the National Guard.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
Or they were huge in Katrina too, because.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
Exactly and they are at the discretion of the governor,
so the governor can call them up. The governor can
put them on days, put them on orders, and get
them immediately into that area. We have a long standing
guard effort down on the border that's funded by the
federal government, and a lot of cases in these emergencies,
the governors are probably keeping their fingers crossing and hoping

(31:46):
that the President of the United States will recognize a
federal emergency because once they do that, then the funding
the guardsmen or the reserves that are called up to
support this will come from the federal government because state
budgets are because they are required to be balanced because
they've got so many other things. In most states they
can be pretty tight. But the members of the Guard
and reserve support their communities all the time.

Speaker 4 (32:08):
And I'm about to be corrected.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
I know this.

Speaker 4 (32:11):
It's a little different though.

Speaker 3 (32:12):
You were your commander of the Arizona Air National Guard,
so we're talking to I have sixteen's refueling tankers and
reaper drones, so it's not quite the same as Hey,
we need some folks out to cut line to fight
a forest fire. But during your time there, did you
get any phone calls from the governor saying, hey, Ted,
we need one of your drone.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Absolutely well, yes, we actually started using drones in some case,
but they're not our drones. The drone operators are what
is in the Air National Guard, and we have a
couple of drones for training. What we really were doing
at that time with our drone operators as members, there
is an Air National Guard is taking control of drones
over in combat theaters because of that, that's one of
the things that's changed. It you don't have to fly

(32:51):
a drone in combat. You don't have to be in
country to land that drone. You needed to be in
country are close, so it's a proximity thing. But what
we do, you know, what you do see is you'll
get the calls and they want our drone operators have
used things on the borders, We've used things in the

(33:13):
communities when needed. The challenges Posskomatatas still applies to us.
So the thing I think people have to understand is
the National Guard when they are deployed or to help
out support to quell you know, riots, any other things
that you've seen a military presence. It's more about being
the presence we're still not authorized to arrest, you know, civilians,

(33:38):
because we're not against the civilians the United States absolutely.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
And I smiled to ed because I interviewed Awaitishimoto, who
is one of the first five members of Delta Force,
and he says, earlier on they had the same situation
where they're they're being sent out to an FBI situation
or something like this, and they said, nope, we're just
here to observe.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
We can't actually do anything. We can't talk to you.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
And it's like, well, here, I've got this great guy
with this great skill set and I can't use.

Speaker 4 (34:08):
Them at all. I mean, what good is he?

Speaker 1 (34:10):
But but I think you look at you look at
the efforts on the border, which have been supported by
multiple different states deploying their their guardsmen into this area.
And I'm talking for a decade and a half or
long time since I've been involved, since i've been I've
been retired eight years, and before that we had this
and they're there just to provide additional manpower. The Custom
Border Patrol agents. They're the ones that do the interactions,

(34:34):
They're the ones that take care. We're there either supplying food,
maybe sitting observatories. We could witness folks coming across the
border and then notify the appropriate authorities to go do it.
It's there's a very fine line of how you can
use the military or how we can be used because
and that's that's completely appropriate. Yeah, but we're there defend
against enemies foreign and domestic.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
Ted we're kind of coming down to the end of
the show here. But I can actually go out, Well
I can't because I'm old and fat, and I think
there is just a thirty five. But a young person
can go out and join the Guard of the Reserve
without going through active duty first.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
That's absolutely correct.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
And a lot of times on the for the for
the enlisted members, especially in aviation UNI and stuff, they're
going to come direct to the Guard of Reserves. Now,
what I tell the young men and women, I already
acknowledge that people always look at the next generation say, oh,
they're not as you know, supportive of our government and
our country, and they're not as dedicate, And that's that's
that's just not true, because we have plenty of people

(35:34):
that want to serve and if you know, you want
to make the military out of the career, I would
absolutely say, go go to the active duty first. It's
got a definite role. If you want to test the waters,
the guards and reserve are good places do it. Or
if you want to get involved at early age in
college and you're looking for some benefits, guard and reserve
are a great place to do it because you can

(35:54):
start your military career and do that. But if all
three components of our military service, active duty, Reserve, and
guard all provide incredible opportunities for growth and development, the
benefits equal, they're different, they're different. If you're a traditional guardsman,
the education front is probably the one that they're closest.

(36:16):
But if you're a traditional guardsman, or even if you're
a full a guardsman, that's well traditional anytime you have
to be on duty for some benefits, but there are
benefits for you and your family that are outside of that.
But it does matter your status. Whereas if you're active duty,
you're active duty, you're always in status, you're always expected.

(36:38):
But the education benefits, and to me, the most important
thing is whether you're in any one of those three components,
you're going to learn discipline, you're going to load the
need to show up on time and guess what if
you decide the military is not for you and you're
going to go out and look for a job in
the civilian workforce, the employers know that. They know you've
been taught to show up on time, You've been taught

(36:58):
to be disciplined, you've been taught to do you know
what your responsibilities are, and you generally have learned how
to be great members of the team, sometimes leading it,
sometimes being in the sport role.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
You get it.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
So it's a great opportunity, I think still for people
to serve in any one of the three components.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
When I was with the employee support of the Guard Reserve,
we had one coast Guard reservists here in my hometown
or in the state, i should say, And it was
a big kind of a game amongst alls the challenges. Okay,
whoever gets to meet this one coast he first, you
win a prize because nobody's ever seen this man or woman.
It is so if I'm in the active duty, I

(37:38):
go wherever they send me. But if I'm at guards,
someone in the Guard and I want to move from
my home state to someplace else, is that complicated?

Speaker 4 (37:49):
Are they just at open arms? Nope?

Speaker 2 (37:51):
At the one sixty second.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
We had a lot of pilots that were members of
our unit that would come down and fly their required sorties,
spend drill weekend with us, and they might have lived
in San Francisco or Denver. They'd live with their where
their hub was for their airline job. But that's that's
true about anybody, and that's why that Coasty probably was
lived in the state, but his unit was probably someplace
where he could do his job. So it does give

(38:14):
you flexibility on where you want to live and continue
your service or to start your service and make it
a career.

Speaker 3 (38:21):
So I know you're probably biased, but flip a coin
guard or reserve, or which one do well.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
I prefer Guard when it comes to guard to reserve.
But flip a coin between active duty and guard. And
I've got great experiences on both sides of it, both
in the camaraderie side, the job satisfaction side, getting to
do what I did for me, joining the Guard made
a huge difference in my life because I was exposed
to Tucson, I was exposed to the one sixty second,

(38:47):
which is an incredible unit, and it gave me a
lot of opportunities for continued service.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
Ted, It's always an honor and a pleasure to have
you share your time mic with her with the American
Warrior Radio and share your thoughts with our listeners. I
appreciate it and you will have you back on again
sometime soon.

Speaker 4 (39:01):
Well.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
I appreciate all you do for everything from the nine
to eleven Remembrance to esgr and American Warrior Radio. This
is an incredible program that you've grown and you should
be proud of that.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Thank you, sir.

Speaker 4 (39:14):
Don't forget ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
You can find over a six hundred podcast at Americanwarriorradio
dot com. Please share these important stories. You can also
find us on whatever your favorite platform as if it's Pandora, Spotify,
where we're trying to get these messages everywhere. Until next time,
all policies and procedures that remain in place.

Speaker 4 (39:28):
Take care.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
You've been listening to American Warrior Radio.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
Archived episodes may be found at Americanwarriorradio dot com or
your favorite podcast platform