January 9, 2020

 

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 IN THIS EDITION:

Time to Register for the 2020 Convention in Charlotte, “Vision is 2020” NCNGA
Calling All Retirees: Requesting Your Support For the Convention NCNGA 
Play Golf and Support the NCNGA Educational Foundation NCNGA 
Paid Internship Opportunity! NCNGA 
Running for Elected Office in 2020? NCNGA 
NGAUS Applauds Action to Close Benefits Gap Between Deployed Active, Guard Troops NGAUS 
NCNG College Fair: Two Locations with One Purpose NCNG
NGAUS on the Hill: Your Monthly Legislative Update NGAUS 
Membership Data Update NCNGA 
Member portal is up and running! NCNGA
New NGAUS Rates! NCNGA 
Do you have an event at your unit or with your Family Support Group and need some help raising funds? NCNGA 
January 9th — Today in Guard History National Guard 

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Time to Register for the 2020 Convention in Charlotte, “Vision is 2020” NCNGA 

Convention and Combined Ball registration is now open here. The North Carolina National Guard Association (NCNGA) and Convention Committee are proud to announce this year’s 59th Annual Convention will be hosted at the Sheraton Le Meridian Complex in Charlotte, NC March 27-28th. The North Carolina National Guard Combined ball is being hosted following the Convention on the evening of the 28th. The NCNGA Educational Foundation will hold a golf tournament and Reverse Drawing on March 26th. All Association business sessions that require voting will occur on Saturday prior to lunch.

Calling All Retirees: Requesting Your Support For the Convention DVIDS 

Calling all retirees, please see the attached letter for a request for support for the upcoming convention.

 

 

Play Golf and Support the NCNGA Educational Foundation NCNGA 

Tournament is open to everyone. Fee includes cart and green fee, 3 mulligans, and a Putting Contest to kick off the event. Put together your own team or sign up individually and be placed on a team. For team registration, send individual entry forms signed by each golfer. Payment must accompany entry form. You can either pay by check, or pay online at our website and use the PayPal Donate button. Be sure to add your information in the note section to indicate the reason for donating. Registration forms can be printed and sent by regular mail, or e-mailed to our office at edfoundation@ncnga.org.

We are also looking for hole sponsors! Anyone interested can contact Terry Westbrook (919) 907-8989.

Paid Internship Opportunity! NCNGA 

Are you a college student or do you know one in the Raleigh area looking to gain some real-world experience? Well, check this out. Your North Carolina National Guard Association has an opening for a part-time, paid internship. The ideal candidate would be a Junior that would want to start in the upcoming semester, work through the summer and then through their senior year.

For full details and application instructions check out the attached document.

Running for Elected Office in 2020? NCNGA 

If you are a member of the North Carolina National Guard Association and you are running for an elected position your association wants to know. We are putting together a list of all of our members running for office. This is not for any endorsement of any candidate just to educate and inform our membership. Email Larry Coleman directly at Larry@ncnga.org.

NGAUS Applauds Action to Close Benefits Gap Between Deployed Active, Guard Troops Army.mil 

WASHINGTON (Jan. 6, 2020) — Deployed National Guardsmen and Reservists now have benefits parity with their active-component counterparts thanks to a bipartisan effort in Congress.

The fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes language that provides Guardsmen and Reservists mobilized under authority 12304b with a benefit they were previously denied — credit towards early retirement pay.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., were the driving forces behind the provision in the Senate. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., the co-chairs of the House National Guard and Reserve Caucus, pushed it in the House.

“Equal work and sacrifice deserve equal pay and benefits,” said retired Brig. Gen. J. Roy Robinson, the NGAUS president. “We applaud the four legislators for recognizing this and winning the support of their colleagues.”

Congress worked hard in the early years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to close the longstanding benefits gap between the active component and the Guard and Reserve, Robinson said. However, the disparity reopened in 2012 with the creation of 12304b.

The new mobilization authority gave the services easy access to the Guard and Reserve for so-called preplanned missions, but it did not provide premobilization and transitional health care or credit toward GI Bill educational benefits and early retirement.

Those benefits are included under other mobilization authorities, and Guardsmen and Reservists and their families have come to rely on them to ease the burdens of overseas missions. Active-component members receive health care and credit toward the GI Bill and retirement even when not deployed.

Tens of thousands of Guardsmen and Reservists have mobilized for overseas duty under 12304b in recent years. Examples include peacekeeping mission in Kosovo and on the Sinai Peninsula.

Congress added education benefits and premobilization and transitional health care to 12304b in 2017, but the lack of credit toward early retirement remained. The early retirement program enables Guardsmen and Reservists with 20 qualifying years to receive their pension three months earlier than the traditional age of 60 for every 90 days mobilized since January 2008.

Until the president signed the fiscal 2020 NDAA on Dec. 20, service under 12304b did not count toward early retirement. Now it does, Robinson said, thanks in large part to Wicker and Coons in the Senate and Ryan and Palazzo in the House.

“I was glad to work with Senator Coons, the National Guard Association, and others to close the remaining gaps in benefits for our Guardsmen and Reservists who make the same sacrifices for our nation as their active-duty counterparts,” Wicker said.

“Members of the Guard and Reserves in Delaware and around the country should have access to the full range of benefits they deserve,” Coons said. “The defense authorization bill is critical to our national security and our service members, and I’m glad to see that this year’s bill helps to ensure that Guardsmen and Reservists are fairly compensated.”

“As the co-chair of the bipartisan National Guard and Reserve Caucus, I’m proud we finally closed the loophole that left some Guardsmen without the benefits they earned,” Ryan said. “Retirement, GI Bill and TRICARE health care benefits will no longer depend on an arbitrary number on their orders.”

“With passage of this year’s NDAA, we can finally close the book on this injustice,” Palazzo said. “Through multiple pieces of legislation passed over the years, we have successfully clawed back the benefits that our Guard and Reserve have rightly earned, and I am proud to have been part of that.”

NCNG College Fair: Two Locations with One Purpose NCNG 

Let us help you start or finish your education goals. We’ll have the VA Certifying Officials, college admissions, and the entire NCNG Education Services staff available for you in two locations. Apply onsite for community, public, private, and online colleges, NCTAP, FAFSA, FTA, testing and much more!

NGAUS on the Hill: Your Monthly Legislative Update NGAUS 

Congress completed Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 legislation to authorize and fund the Department of Defense (DoD) in late December 2019. The FY20 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), DoD appropriations legislation, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs (MILCON-VA) appropriations legislation were signed into law on December 20.

The legislative staff persistently worked to ensure the FY20 NDAA and appropriations legislation contained NGAUS priorities and robust funding for the National Guard. A few notable highlights include:

Read More…

Membership Data Update NCNGA 

Membership Data Update – During the last six months we have taken a number of steps to improve our services to and protect the information of our Association members. This includes upgrading our secure server as well as reviewing our database records. If you receive an email from Larry@ncnga.org stating you may not be a member and you believe you are simply send me an email and I will confirm. Thank you for your patience as we move through this process.

Member Portal is up and Running! NCNGA 

The November/December of the Tarheel Guardsman is now available through your member portal

Member portal is up and running. You can create your online account at www.ncnga.org . Once registered you can view your SSLI Benefit Information, EANGUS and NGAUS registration information, as well as other benefits that are available.

Beginning 1 January 2020 the Weekly Guardsman update will only be distributed to members of the Association. It will be sent to all classes of members to include Active Associate, Honorary, Special, Corporate, and Affiliate members, that have a current email on file with the Association. If you don’t receive weekly update the 1st week of January please contact us to update your records.

New NGAUS Rates! NCNGA 

At the NGAUS Conference in Denver, there was a majority vote that our dues structure would be reduced from 15 different price points to three. This rate change will be going into effect on October 1, 2019 for the 2020 membership year.

• Company Grade – $40
• Field Grade – $80
• Flag Grade – $130

You can renew or join for the year 2020 here.

Do you have an event at your unit or with your Family Support Group and need some help raising funds? NCNGA 

Do you have an event at your unit or with your Family Support Group and need some help raising funds? Let your Associations’ Tarheel Minuteman Foundation, a 501 (C)(3), assist with you efforts. Contact the Association at info@ncnga.org for more information.

January 9th — Today in Guard History National Guard 

1945
Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, Philippines – Three of four Army divisions making the assault landing on the main island of the Philippines, site of the nation’s capital of Manila, are from the Guard. They are the 37th (OH), 40th (CA, NV, UT) and the 43rd (CT, ME, RI, VT) infantry divisions. Meeting little resistance on the beaches, the divisions move inland to capture strategic sites. The 40th captured Lingayen Airfield after light opposition but engaged in heavier fighting when it took Storm King Mountain. The 43rd conducted a series of attacks against a determined Japanese defenders on a number of hills on their approach to Fort Stotsenburg, near Clark Airfield north of Manila. The 37th quickly moved south of the landing beaches, capturing Clark Airfield on 26 January. Next it moved into the suburbs of Manila, engaging in house-to-house fighting as it worked into the center of the city. After thousands of enemy dead and almost as many civilians, mostly killed by rampaging Japanese troops, the city fell to the 37th (in conjunction with the 2nd Cavalry Division) on March 3rd.

Read More…