Could State Defense Force Troops Lose Their Combat Patches? SGAUS President Weighs In

In the latest Commanders Briefing clip, Lt. Colonel (MD) Barry Greene, President of The State Guard Association of The United States (SGAUS), responds to the revised National Guard Policy CNGBI 5500.01, which advises that State Defense Force troops should no longer wear the Combat Patch, Combat Infantryman Badge, and other federally recognized military accomplishments. Lt. Col. Greene expresses his disapproval of the removal of these hard-earned distinctions. Citing various sources, he adds that even some within the National Guard oppose stripping prior service members of their combat patches, emphasizing that these honors represent sacrifices made in service to the nation.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode is made possible by Dustin Colgrove and Ben
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com forward slash State Defense Force.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
So I kind of want to move on.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
There was a few of the questions that wanted to address.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
In this directive.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
State Defense Force troops are no longer authorized to wear
qualification badges like the combat patch or the CIB.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Or other equivalent patches. What are your thoughts.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
On this change and should State Defense forces adopt it?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Let me be very clear here, and I think I
can speak both for the organization and for myself having
warned the Army's uniform on and off for the better
part of forty years. Is it is an honor to
wear the army's uniform. The United States Armies uniform is

(01:02):
recognized worldwide, and it is just flatly an honor. It's frankly,
what causes many of us to want to serve in
the State Defense Forces is the honor of continuing to
wear or getting to wear the army's uniform. Now that
being said, I have read AR six seventy dash one
dozens upon dozens of times through its various iterations over

(01:26):
the last decades, and I am here to tell you
that I, for one, as a commissioned officer in a
state defense force, will never look at a combat veteran
wearing the Army's uniform and instruct them to take off
combat items and overseas service items that are authorized by

(01:50):
AR six seventy Dash one. I'm just not and part
of it is because when I went through the indoctrination
of being able to wear the BDU uniform properly, it
was drilled into our skulls that when you earn certain
awards from the United States Army and the Department of Defense,

(02:13):
those go on your utility uniform and never come off.
So from that perspective, I would tell you that I
will not question anybody that wants to codify that into
their regulations as a state regulation, a state military regulation,
a territorial regulation, a federal regulation. I don't really care

(02:37):
who codifies it or when. I Am never going to
look a combat veteran in the eyes or any member
of the warfighter community and tell them to take off
combat awards that they have earned and that they are
properly displaying on the United States Army's uniform. Because I

(02:58):
do not believe that the United States Army would mandate
such a thing. In fact, I think there are a
fair number of people in the DoD that would be
offended by the concept that people that came from their
ranks and are maybe retired from army service are now
being told to take cibs and things like that off.
Now that being said, mister Marciniac, I am here to

(03:21):
tell you I have yet to hear of anybody being
formally mandated to take it off, and I've already heard
from two National Guard officers who shall remain nameless, that
they've conceded to me off the record, and going our
TAG isn't going to take it to tell anybody to
take their combat awards off. No, those are federal awards.

(03:44):
So again, this is not disrespect to MGB. As I've said,
I am thrilled that MGB even has a one percent
time in their day to give thought to the State
Defense Forces because of the aforementioned combat missions that NGNGB
has got to fill their plate with. But that being said,

(04:07):
I think that piece is when I lecture in cybersecurity,
I'll often say there's legality and then there's reality, and
the legality is what the statute says, and the reality
is whether anybody actually complies with it. I think the
reality here is that anybody that earned a CIB or
a pair of airborne wings or pilot's wings, or a

(04:31):
foreign service patch or whatnot, is probably continuing to wear
it on their army utility uniform per AR six seventysh one.
And I think it is unlikely that many people are
going to order them to remove such things, and again,

(04:52):
under the law, they may be required to do so.
But it was very, very similar to when we had
some sage advice from several of our leadership during the
COVID pandemic when we were forced to discharge people that
were not willing to be immunized, and several of our
key leaders were very very quick behind closed doors to say,

(05:15):
you do realize that when the pandemic's over X number
of months from now, they can all come right back
in because that item will just disappear when it's no
longer a political item, and they'll all be able to
come right back in. They were absolutely correct in the
sense that the regulation vanished. So while a number of

(05:37):
these people were discharged under that, it's all cyclical. An
X number of months later they were all welcomed right
back in. So that's effectively what you're looking at here
is I don't think that that If I was to
give you a personal opinion, i'd say I don't think
that regulation is going to last very long. Or I
should say that that guidance from MGB be because they're

(06:00):
really calling in fire on their own position. Basically, their
own veterans are being told to take their stuff off,
and I don't think many of the NGB folks would
find that terribly tasteful either. But that being said, again,
it's such a small piece of what NGB does. It's
a huge thing for us in the SDFS, and I

(06:23):
get that, but I really don't see Saugus's place as
railing against NGB about this, because besides the fact, MGB,
just like SAUGUS, has no direct operational control over state
defense forces that comes from the territorial governors state and territorial.

(06:43):
But on top of that, like I said, my job
is to support the heck out of the National Guard,
not distract them with what I think is administravia and
silliness that's largely going to go away through practice and
application