May 30, 2025 • 8 mins
In Part 3 of our Commanders Briefing podcast with Lt. Colonel (MD) Barry Greene, President of The State Guard Association of the United States (SGAUS), we explore both his short- and long-term goals for the organization, with a strong focus on making the upcoming 2025 SGAUS Convention a major success. The President details how every newly announced course—ranging from Drone Operations to HazMat—will be actively showcased through hands-on exercises at the event, giving attendees the chance to experience the training firsthand. He also shares exciting details of a special ceremony to be held aboard a World War II vessel, beneath the very anti-aircraft guns that helped defend America in battle. Throughout the clip, Lt. Colonel Greene emphasizes the immense value of this gathering—not just for attending panels and training events, but for fostering cross-state collaboration among commanders and soldiers. He outlines his priority of launching these newly announced programs such as the SGAUS Cyber Academy, Cyber Medical Academy, New Search & Rescue and Communications Course, Public Affairs and Recruiter Courses, etc. ensuring each includes exercises and certification opportunities to empower soldiers to bring that knowledge back to their home units. Looking to the future, he expresses hope that even if only half of the new initiatives succeed, he’ll consider it a meaningful achievement, and he names his intended successor to continue the momentum.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode is made possible by Dustin Colgrove, Colonel Ben Perry,
Colonel c McAdams, Senior Colonel Philip Smith, and other Patreon members.
Support us at patreon dot com Forward slash State Defense Force.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
The one last question I had is what are your
during your term as sagas president? What are your short
term priorities and your long term goals for the organization?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Great question, So for everybody to understand this, the Saugust presidency,
even though it's it's technically per Saugus's bylaw, is a
one year term going in and starting to commit to
Saugust programs from inside leadership as a multi year commitment.
I have now had the honor of working with the
(00:49):
Board of Saugust for six years and being formerly on
the Board of Saugust as an officer for two years
prior two my presidency, and then under the Saugust bylaws,
I have to I shouldn't say have to, but I
am a board member for five years after my presidency
(01:12):
as a past president. So when you ask about you know,
short term and long term goals. Pretty much anything I
do with SAUGUS as a long term goal because I'm
here for a longer run. Anyway, I'm having such an
extraordinary time, and part of it is, again, mister Bossini Atkins,
it's the opportunity to work with people, the extraordinary people
(01:33):
that have been developing these courses and are administering them,
but also people like you who are getting the word
out to our troops of all of these new capabilities
and things coming their way. In my case, my short
term goals are, we want to announce the annual conference
as early as next week. We are going to have
it's the fortieth year for Saugust. We're going to have
(01:56):
the biggest annual conference that Saugust has ever had. It's
going to be right here in Tampa, Florida. We've already
got the hotel picked. It's right on the Tampa Riverwalk.
The President's reception is going to be on an operational
World War Two vessel. Just as get better than that
(02:16):
having cocktails under any aircraft guns that fired at Japanese
and German aircraft. To me, that just kind of makes
my day. But also just as importantly, we're going to
bring bringing lots of leadership from around the country, as
we always do to the annual conference, and part of
the fun is not only attending the classes and courses,
(02:38):
but also meeting the people, all of the extraordinary leaders
that are there that you know you would require getting
through seventeen gatekeepers and four months of calendar to get
ten minutes of their time at Saugust, you just go
sit down next to them at a dinner table and
go so general, what's going on in Mississippi. Know, I
(03:00):
heard that you guys did as such, and so the
extraordinary opportunity to just bring everybody together. But our goal
this year is to do on the Friday of the
Saugas Conference one massive FTX and we want to involve
state and federal agencies as well here in Florida and
(03:22):
have already started reaching out to them as soon as
we'll have the date published shortly. But in doing that now,
what we've done is everybody that takes the senior level
Badge courses at the Saugust Conference are going to have
basically a day to a day and a half of
classroom time and then a half a day to a
full day of in the field FTX mixed with the
(03:44):
other students from the other courses all doing those jobs.
And that to me is the best kind of learning
lab environment because they're also going to be mixed with
state and federal agencies who are going to be doing
the role play too. And I don't know how many
tabletops and or full size exercises you've encountered. I've done
(04:05):
a few where they're nothing short of spectacular, even though
everything goes wrong and the exercises and it truly does
go wrong, and it's all learning. You build such extraordinary
relationships not only with what you're doing and the people
around you doing the same thing, but also with those
other entities, and that ability to liaison and the ability
(04:30):
of folks that just came through a search and rescue
course being literally standing next to folks on a field
that have just gone through a drone search and rescue course.
If you follow the logic mixing and matching and the communication,
huge huge step forward for the State Defense Forces. But
also all the people that we're sending home with senior
level badges are going to be equipped with all the
(04:52):
supplies to train everybody at home station in the basic
level badges. So my short term is, I got to
get through this annual conference. I gotta get all of
Saugusts through it. I've got to dodge some slings and
arrows that will inevitably happen with somebody that does or
says something not so nice about the State Defense Forces,
(05:14):
and the Saugust President has to make a statement whatever else.
But in the meantime, my tunnel vision focused is this
is a level of opportunity. The number of courses, the
number of badges, the number of trainings that is unprecedented
in State Defense Force history. Got to roll it out,
got to get it in front of the members, and
have got to get as many members into these classes
(05:36):
as possible and show them that this is what you
the members. We're at forty years. We wouldn't be here
without the Saugust membership, and this is one of those
of I'm going to look at everybody at the annual conference,
conceivably you too, mister Mercyiac, and go, you know, on
my last night as Saugust President, how are we doing.
(05:58):
You know, there are a lot of complaints and laments
that every service member and every uniform service has, But
we are the association that represents the State Defense Forces
of the United States, and we have been for forty years.
And if what we are doing meeting with legislators in
Washington identifying programs that can pay for training for State
(06:21):
Defense Force personnel, finding opportunities for State Defense Force personnel
to just because they are serving, get college educations and massive,
massive abilities of certifications and programming at lower costs or
at no costs, and then on top of that, to
wear proudly badges and tabs that they've earned for legitimate,
(06:41):
federally underpinned certifications and training. You know, I don't need
you to answer this question now, but I'm going to
ask this question when I take the microphone for my
last night as Saugust President, which will be sometime in November.
It looks like this year, how are we doing so?
(07:01):
Long term plan, keep it going, keep the momentum going.
And by the way, I think you've already had some
communications with him. My successor. I couldn't be more proud
or excited. President elect of Saugus is Brigadier General Greg Juday.
He's currently commanding Maryland's Defense Forces. I know you know
(07:21):
of him. If not, I've had some communication direct. General
Juday as a veteran of the United States Air Force,
as is his wife, as is his daughter, and is
now commander of Maryland's Defense forces again. He and I
were the delegation that went to the White House to
talk about all the cyber training. General Juday, I'm not
(07:45):
gonna put words in his mouth, but if I'm on
the board come November stepping down as president, he's president,
I'm gonna keep nudging and pushing to make sure that
these programs flourish. By the way, if I've mentioned ten
programs and only five of them have survived three years
from now, I'm still a pretty proud guy. I don't
(08:06):
expect everything to be an overnight success. But on the
other hand, it's you, the members that are listening to
this or get any of our other information, that are
going to determine whether or not these programs survive or flourish.
For the very simple reason that I could have forty
governors that tell me all tomorrow that they want lots
(08:27):
and lots of HASMAT people. If nobody steps up to
actually earn the badges and wear them, or no SDF
actually recruits such people, it's kind of a moot point.
So this is a group effort. Saugus is just trying
to do our job, as I see it, on the
things that make Saugust sungus in any of our members' eyes,
(08:49):
and to try to do it. I'm not going to
say perfectly, because it'll ever be perfect, but we're just
trying to do it better
This episode is made possible by Dustin Colgrove, Colonel Ben Perry,
Colonel c McAdams, Senior Colonel Philip Smith, and other Patreon members.
Support us at patreon dot com Forward slash State Defense Force.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
The one last question I had is what are your
during your term as sagas president? What are your short
term priorities and your long term goals for the organization?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Great question, So for everybody to understand this, the Saugust presidency,
even though it's it's technically per Saugus's bylaw, is a
one year term going in and starting to commit to
Saugust programs from inside leadership as a multi year commitment.
I have now had the honor of working with the
(00:49):
Board of Saugust for six years and being formerly on
the Board of Saugust as an officer for two years
prior two my presidency, and then under the Saugust bylaws,
I have to I shouldn't say have to, but I
am a board member for five years after my presidency
(01:12):
as a past president. So when you ask about you know,
short term and long term goals. Pretty much anything I
do with SAUGUS as a long term goal because I'm
here for a longer run. Anyway, I'm having such an
extraordinary time, and part of it is, again, mister Bossini Atkins,
it's the opportunity to work with people, the extraordinary people
(01:33):
that have been developing these courses and are administering them,
but also people like you who are getting the word
out to our troops of all of these new capabilities
and things coming their way. In my case, my short
term goals are, we want to announce the annual conference
as early as next week. We are going to have
it's the fortieth year for Saugust. We're going to have
(01:56):
the biggest annual conference that Saugust has ever had. It's
going to be right here in Tampa, Florida. We've already
got the hotel picked. It's right on the Tampa Riverwalk.
The President's reception is going to be on an operational
World War Two vessel. Just as get better than that
(02:16):
having cocktails under any aircraft guns that fired at Japanese
and German aircraft. To me, that just kind of makes
my day. But also just as importantly, we're going to
bring bringing lots of leadership from around the country, as
we always do to the annual conference, and part of
the fun is not only attending the classes and courses,
(02:38):
but also meeting the people, all of the extraordinary leaders
that are there that you know you would require getting
through seventeen gatekeepers and four months of calendar to get
ten minutes of their time at Saugust, you just go
sit down next to them at a dinner table and
go so general, what's going on in Mississippi. Know, I
(03:00):
heard that you guys did as such, and so the
extraordinary opportunity to just bring everybody together. But our goal
this year is to do on the Friday of the
Saugas Conference one massive FTX and we want to involve
state and federal agencies as well here in Florida and
(03:22):
have already started reaching out to them as soon as
we'll have the date published shortly. But in doing that now,
what we've done is everybody that takes the senior level
Badge courses at the Saugust Conference are going to have
basically a day to a day and a half of
classroom time and then a half a day to a
full day of in the field FTX mixed with the
(03:44):
other students from the other courses all doing those jobs.
And that to me is the best kind of learning
lab environment because they're also going to be mixed with
state and federal agencies who are going to be doing
the role play too. And I don't know how many
tabletops and or full size exercises you've encountered. I've done
(04:05):
a few where they're nothing short of spectacular, even though
everything goes wrong and the exercises and it truly does
go wrong, and it's all learning. You build such extraordinary
relationships not only with what you're doing and the people
around you doing the same thing, but also with those
other entities, and that ability to liaison and the ability
(04:30):
of folks that just came through a search and rescue
course being literally standing next to folks on a field
that have just gone through a drone search and rescue course.
If you follow the logic mixing and matching and the communication,
huge huge step forward for the State Defense Forces. But
also all the people that we're sending home with senior
level badges are going to be equipped with all the
(04:52):
supplies to train everybody at home station in the basic
level badges. So my short term is, I got to
get through this annual conference. I gotta get all of
Saugusts through it. I've got to dodge some slings and
arrows that will inevitably happen with somebody that does or
says something not so nice about the State Defense Forces,
(05:14):
and the Saugust President has to make a statement whatever else.
But in the meantime, my tunnel vision focused is this
is a level of opportunity. The number of courses, the
number of badges, the number of trainings that is unprecedented
in State Defense Force history. Got to roll it out,
got to get it in front of the members, and
have got to get as many members into these classes
(05:36):
as possible and show them that this is what you
the members. We're at forty years. We wouldn't be here
without the Saugust membership, and this is one of those
of I'm going to look at everybody at the annual conference,
conceivably you too, mister Mercyiac, and go, you know, on
my last night as Saugust President, how are we doing.
(05:58):
You know, there are a lot of complaints and laments
that every service member and every uniform service has, But
we are the association that represents the State Defense Forces
of the United States, and we have been for forty years.
And if what we are doing meeting with legislators in
Washington identifying programs that can pay for training for State
(06:21):
Defense Force personnel, finding opportunities for State Defense Force personnel
to just because they are serving, get college educations and massive,
massive abilities of certifications and programming at lower costs or
at no costs, and then on top of that, to
wear proudly badges and tabs that they've earned for legitimate,
(06:41):
federally underpinned certifications and training. You know, I don't need
you to answer this question now, but I'm going to
ask this question when I take the microphone for my
last night as Saugust President, which will be sometime in November.
It looks like this year, how are we doing so?
(07:01):
Long term plan, keep it going, keep the momentum going.
And by the way, I think you've already had some
communications with him. My successor. I couldn't be more proud
or excited. President elect of Saugus is Brigadier General Greg Juday.
He's currently commanding Maryland's Defense Forces. I know you know
(07:21):
of him. If not, I've had some communication direct. General
Juday as a veteran of the United States Air Force,
as is his wife, as is his daughter, and is
now commander of Maryland's Defense forces again. He and I
were the delegation that went to the White House to
talk about all the cyber training. General Juday, I'm not
(07:45):
gonna put words in his mouth, but if I'm on
the board come November stepping down as president, he's president,
I'm gonna keep nudging and pushing to make sure that
these programs flourish. By the way, if I've mentioned ten
programs and only five of them have survived three years
from now, I'm still a pretty proud guy. I don't
(08:06):
expect everything to be an overnight success. But on the
other hand, it's you, the members that are listening to
this or get any of our other information, that are
going to determine whether or not these programs survive or flourish.
For the very simple reason that I could have forty
governors that tell me all tomorrow that they want lots
(08:27):
and lots of HASMAT people. If nobody steps up to
actually earn the badges and wear them, or no SDF
actually recruits such people, it's kind of a moot point.
So this is a group effort. Saugus is just trying
to do our job, as I see it, on the
things that make Saugust sungus in any of our members' eyes,
(08:49):
and to try to do it. I'm not going to
say perfectly, because it'll ever be perfect, but we're just
trying to do it better
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