SGAUS President Discusses New National Guard Bureau Uniform Policy for State Defense Forces

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Forward slash State Defense Force.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
The next subject I wanted to kind of jump into.
I wanted to get your viewpoint. Last year, the National
Guard Bureau changed their directive called CNGBI fifty five hundred
dot one. It's the directive that handles the interaction between
the National Guard and State Defense Forces. One of the

(00:34):
big changes that the director was an alteration of the uniform.
Most of our audience know that currently most State Defense
forces were camouflage, name tapes, ran insignia, and cover. However,
the National Guard Bureau has recommended a change to a

(00:57):
red cover, red name tapes, and a red insignia. Directive
also advises troops to wear on their Believe Right shoulder
red patch with SDF in white insignia. I wanted to

(01:18):
get your viewpoint on this recent change.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Okay, Well, first off, I don't see it as a
recent change. I see a guidance that came out of
MGB last year that Saugust has already commented on officially,
and by the way, we agree with a number of
parts of it. We disagree with others, but it's a recommendation,
it's a guidance. Ultimately, the decision as to what any

(01:46):
state Defense force is going to be wearing it rests
entirely with their adjutant general and or with their governor
and the chain of command. That's it. I would tell
you that State Defense Force members that are in process
of changing, that's up to your chain of command, and
that's true of any chain of command to any uniform service.

(02:06):
For those that have not changed, discussing whether or not
we are SDF will be changing is irrelevant because that
decision is ultimately going to be made by senior leadership,
and more often than not due to costs, not necessarily
due to any directive from MGB or anything else. Because

(02:27):
anytime you make uniform changes, there are costs that are
going to be either paid by the individual service members
or are going to be paid by the taxpayers, and
the question is who is going to pay those costs.
What I would urge people to do instead is to
focus on the present and the future. Uniforms need to

(02:48):
protect the individuals that are wearing them, particularly in austere environments,
for the same reason that if you've seen pictures of
the firefighters that were being deployed in Calfornia by the
California State Guard a couple of years ago. They were
most assuredly not wearing acus or ocps. They were not
wearing red name tapes or red covers. They were wearing

(03:11):
firefighter gear because the goal of their uniform was to
prepare or protect them and be utility to them in
an austere environment. Ultimately, all state defense force uniforms need
to meet the requirements of the individuals wearing them in
the environment that they are wearing them, as well as
allow them to interact appropriately with a chain of command.

(03:34):
That's it. I see mgb's guidance as trying to be helpful,
but as already evidenced as we are close to a
year later after it was published, it was a guidance.
Not everybody reacted to it. Some reacted to it and
discussing something that as far as I'm concerned, if I
publish something tomorrow from Saugus, it will be outdated by

(03:57):
the day after tomorrow, because there will already be some
chain that has affected some sentence and whatever it is
that I would say, let's all get focused on the present.
In the future. Saugust is going to be making some
recommendations on some uniform stuff too, including stuff that nobody's
even thought of yet. But it's one of those of
or we don't think anybody's thought of it yet, but

(04:18):
it's kind of when you take a national level position,
look and talk to so many extraordinary people in so
many state defense forces around the country, you can't help
but pick up some really good ideas and subjections suggestions
along the way. And then you sit there and you know,
in my chair, I'm just like a kid with a
new toy. I want to play with it. I want

(04:40):
to put it out there and say, okay, fine, there
are twenty some odd sdfs out there, depending on who's
count right now, between twenty and twenty five. And as such,
if one, two, even three adopt whatever that new thing is,
that's great. If they don't, they've effectively voted anyway, and

(05:03):
that's told us. And I would say that of the
same of the badge programs that Saugust is rolling out,
if nobody signs up to take them, then the Saugust constituency,
you Saugust members have spoken to us, and we went
we go, okay, we just won't do that anymore. But
that's kind of my take on the NNGB memo is

(05:25):
it was a wonderful starting point, and I thank NNGB
for taking that tiny bit of time out of their
extraordinarily important combat operations to give a thought to the
State Defense Forces. And that being said, we're good. There
will be other name tape colors, there will be other covers.

(05:47):
The ocps are eventually going to go away. It's all
going to cycle into new things again, and we'll try
to be as much of a voice for you are
Saugust members as we can