NCNGA Weekly Guardsman for August 4, 2022
August 4th, 2022
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IN THIS EDITION:
Join NC4ME and the NC Business Center for a networking social! NCNGA
Texas validates storm response agencies DVIDS
Scholarship Spotlight: Weldon E. Holcomb & Lt Col William C. Polk Memorial Scholarships NCNGA
USO Volunteers Needed! USO
Read the latest edition of the Tarheel Guardsman NCNGA
EANGUS Roll Call: Drill Weekend Talking Points EANGUS
Highlighting EANGUS and NGAUS’s upcoming conferences NCNGA
Tickets-At-Work: Members get Discounts on Tickets NCNGA
This Week in NCNG History NCNG Museum
August 4th — Today in Guard History National Guard
Join NC4ME and the NC Business Center for a networking social! NCNGA
Join NC4ME and the NC Business Center for a networking social! This event is free for all employers, service members, and military spouses.
Join us on July 26 for this interactive networking social! Employers and candidates will be able to connect with each other and the NC4ME team. Appetizers and beverages will be provided.
Texas validates storm response agencies DVIDS
COLLEGE Station, Texas – Law enforcement agencies, active-duty Military and various National Guard units came together to conduct the annual Search and Rescue Exercise, in College Station, Texas, June 14-15, 2022.
What initially started 10 years ago as a statewide exercise, has now become a validation event for agencies across the U.S. that test their skills in preparation for natural disasters response.
The primary focus of the SAREX is hurricane response preparedness, based off real-world events in the past.
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Jose Pedro Lebron-Vargas III, of the Texas Army National Guard serves as the Search and Rescue Director of Air Operations for the State of Texas, where he coordinates the air space and federal assets of the Department of Defense. He additionally serves as the deputy director for the Air Operations Center working in tandem with Brett Dixon of Texas Task Force One. Vargas has been a SAREX key planner for the past four years.
“We try to mimic a hurricane and what each echelon would be doing,” said Vargas. “The goal is to practice communication between different agencies and states in order to execute smoother operations for when real disaster strikes.”
This year over 60 soldiers from the Texas State Guard stepped in as role players for the scenarios. The participation of the Texas State Guard provided the crews with optimal chance of cycling through more scenarios through-out the day gaining the maximum amount of exposure and practice.
“Something that I took away from this experience was the overwhelming sense of teamwork and how all the agencies worked together seamlessly to extract us to safety; said Pfc. Ashley Gibson, assigned to the Texas State Guard.
National Guard units from Maryland, Indiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma were among the participating states this year. Years prior, National Guard units from Missouri, South Carolina, and North Carolina have traveled to Texas to test their skills.
“In the past, we have had anywhere between 15-20 different agencies participate in the SAREX,” said Vargas. “This year, we had over 200 participates; 22 different agencies, 16 aircraft, and for the first time ever; 5 unmanned aircraft systems,” said Vargas.
Agencies, regardless of state origin serve a critical role within the Texas State Aviation Office when they are activated as a support function in response to natural disasters. The SAREX ensures our state and federal partners continue to stay ready and relevant with new procedures and technology.
Scholarship Spotlight: Weldon E. Holcomb & Lt Col William C. Polk Memorial Scholarships NCNGA
Scholarship Spotlight:
Weldon E. Holcomb Memorial Scholarship
Mr. Holcomb joined the military and 1942 as part of the 28th Infantry Division. He participated in D-Day invasion of Normandy, June 6, 1944. He was captured by the Germans at the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944. He was a POW for nine months before escaping and making his way back to the American lines to be released in May 1945. Mr. Holcomb joined the NCNG in 1947 as a full-time unit administrator in Winston-Salem. He serves as Division Food Service Chief and Battalion Administrative Officer for the 230th Support Battalion, 30th Infantry Division, Winston-Salem. Upon his death in 1973, Mr. Holcomb had attained the rank of Chief Warrant Officer Four.
Lt Col William C. Polk Memorial Scholarship
Lt Col Polk enlisted in the US Army in February of 1943 in September of that year he entered duty as an aviation cadet in the Army Air Corps ultimately serving as a bomber pilot. He flew the A-26 over “The Hump” in the Burma-China Theater at the age of 21. He was reassigned in April of 1946 to the Army Air Corps Reserves where he served until joining the North Carolina Air National Guard, 156th Fighter Bomber Squadron in 1954 as a pilot flying the F86A. He was seriously injured in the crash of his T-33 at Savannah, Georgia during exercises. He was employed as the full-time Base Civilian Engineer for the NCANG. Many changes on the base were the result of his efforts. His last large design and construction project was the base operations building. He retired from as a full-time technician and from the NCANG on April 30, 1981.
Click here to learn more and apply!
The USO North Carolina is looking for volunteers in the Raleigh, Goldsboro, Jacksonville, and Fayetteville areas. USO Volunteers are trusted representatives of our mission to connect service members to family, home and country throughout their service to the nation. Our highest need is volunteers to operate our RDU Airport, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, Ellis Airport (Jacksonville), and Fort Bragg Centers. Please sign up via the link below and we will contact you for training as soon as possible.
Read the latest edition of the Tarheel Guardsman NCNGA 
The latest edition of the Tarheel Guardsman is now available online at https://ncnga.org/tarheel-guardsman/
EANGUS Roll Call: Drill Weekend Talking Points EANGUS
President Biden released the FY23 President’s Budget on March 28th, 2022, with most of the supporting documents not being released until late April. The President’s budget requests $773.0 billion in spending for the Department of Defense. This is an increase of 5.75%, or $44.5 billion, above FY22 enacted levels. The late release of the President’s Budget was due, in part, to the extremely late FY22 appropriations legislation in which the federal government operated under a continuing resolution for the first six months of FY22. This has caused a cascading effect on the rest of the cycle, delaying normal FY23 NDAA and appropriations processes.
Each year, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) authorizes funding levels and provides authority for the U.S. military and other critical defense priorities, ensuring our troops have the training, equipment, and resources they need to carry out their missions.
The national security challenges before the United States are momentous. In its 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS), the Department of Defense judges China as the “most consequential strategic competitor and the pacing challenge for the Department,” and identifies Russia as an “acute threat.” These global rivals do not accept the international norms that have helped maintain peace and stability for the better part of a century, and our long-term strategic competition with China and Russia is likely to intensify. Even as the United States navigates this competition, the Department of Defense must also manage persistent threats such as North Korea, Iran, and violent terrorist organizations. The interconnected nature of these and other threats will drive how the United States resources and transforms its tools of national power to rise to the challenge. The passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for the Fiscal Year 2023 is an important step toward achieving that goal.
The 62nd annual NDAA supports a total of $857.46 billion in the fiscal year 2023 funding for national defense. Within this topline, the legislation authorizes $817.15 billion for the Department of Defense (DOD) and $29.71 billion for national security programs within the Department of Energy (DOE).
The bill allows up to $6 billion in general transfer authority for unforeseen higher-priority needs in accordance with normal reprogramming procedures.
Both houses of Congress continue to work on FY23 appropriations, holding posture hearings with Service Secretaries, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Combatant Commanders. Congress is expected to work under a $1.6 trillion discretionary budget ceiling as negotiations continue in determining top lines for defense and non-defense budgets. House appropriators did start their subcommittee mark-ups during the week of June 13th, 2022. Senate appropriators are expected to start the mark-up process later this summer.
H.R.2471 Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 was signed into law on March 11th, 2022, fully funding the federal government through the end of the current Fiscal Year. The compromise package ends the nearly six-month stalemate between the House and the Senate in which the government has been funded by continuing resolutions. This budget also marks a major shift in how the Department of Defense pays for contingency operations by replacing the Overseas Contingency Operations account with two new accounts that fall under the department’s base budget.
Some of the supported bills that did come up in the NDAA are as follow:
- H.R.1836/S.2644 Guard and Reserve GI Bill Parity Act provides GI Bill education benefits parity between the Active and Reserve Components.
- H.R.7837/S.4272 National Guard Promotion Improvement Act requires service secretaries to backdate date of rank and provides backpay and provides Congressional oversight and reviews FEDREC process to decrease delays.
- H.R.5112/S.4179 Space National Guard Establishment Act creates a Space National Guard and establishes it as the primary combat reserve of the U.S. Space Force.
- H.R.1854/S.1178 RECRUIT Act authorizes small businesses an additional tax credit for employing members of the Guard and Reserve.
- S.3215 USACE Military Personnel Augmentation Act of 2021 expands USACE eligibility to members of the Guard and Reserve, Warrant Officers, and non-commissioned officers
The introduction of both the House and the Senate version of the FY23 National Defense Authorization Act is the beginning of the process. EANGUS will continue to monitor these bills closely and will be sure to notify our members of any updated information. The NDAA, as always, will be a major topic at this year’s conference in Little Rock AR. Hope to see you there.
If you have any questions, please reach out to
the EANGUS Legislative Director Kevin Hollinger at
kevin@eangus.org or 202-670-1826.
EANGUS Legislative Action Center
EANGUS Healthcare Survey
EANGUS invites you to take a brief 30-second survey to provide your feedback on the importance of healthcare and your military service.
The annual conference brings 1,000+ attendees consisting of EANGUS members, National Guard Leadership, State Association Senior Enlisted Leaders, representation from Joint Services, and product end-users.
We are excited to have the National Guard Command Senior Enlisted Leaders (CSEL) present at the EANGUS Conference who jointly hold their annual conference at the same location. In addition, many of the Army National Guard Command Sergeants Major, as well as the Air National Guard Command Chief Master Sergeants from the State and Wing Levels, will be in attendance. Furthermore, each year, EANGUS has a hundred or more National Guard Servicemembers attend our annual conference for Professional Development purposes and our Senior Enlisted leaders provide invaluable insight and mentorship to those that attend. The Senior Enlisted Leaders of the National Guard support EANGUS and their participation greatly increases the value that our attendees receive.
Highlighting EANGUS and NGAUS’s upcoming conferences NCNGA
While our conference in Wilmington last week was a success, we want to highlight EANGUS and NGAUS’s upcoming conferences for their members! Be sure to sign up soon to reserve your spot.
For information on EANGUS: https://eangusconference.org/
For information on NGAUS: https://www.ngaus.org/…/144th-general-conference…
Tickets-At-Work: Members get Discounts on Tickets NCNGA 
Tickets at Work: The benefits are endless when it comes to being a NCNGA member! Check out our Tickets-At-Work program, where members can get discounts on tickets from Busch Gardens all the way to Disney. For more information, visit https://ncnga.org/discounts/
This Week in NCNG History NCNG Museum
If you know of anything significant to the NCNG that occurred on any of these dates, and would like it added to our records, please email 1LT Dearie at kory.k.dearie.mil@mail.mil
August 4th — Today in Guard History National Guard
1898
Havana, Cuba – Under terms of the armistice ending the fighting between American and Spanish forces after the U.S. victories in the Battle of San Juan Heights and the capture of Santiago Harbor in early July, American troops arrive to occupy the colonial capital while formal peace negotiations proceed in Paris, France, to end the war. Commanding the U.S. VII Corps was Major General Fitzhugh Lee, the nephew of famed Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Like his uncle he was a Virginian but Fitzhugh did not need to depend upon the family name for recognition. After graduating from West Point in 1856, he commanded cavalry forces in numerous engagements against Indians in west, once being so badly wounded he almost died. During the Civil War, he joined the Confederate Army and rose by professional and inspired leadership from major in 1861 to major general and commander of the Cavalry Division of the Army of Northern Virginia by war’s end in 1865. Once Virginia was readmitted into the Union in 1871 and allowed to reorganize its state militia, Fitzhugh Lee played an important role in overseeing its training. By 1875 enough companies were available for two infantry regiments to be organized into a brigade. Governor James Kemper (himself a famed Civil War general) appointed Lee as the first Brigadier General of the post war Virginia Volunteers. While in this capacity he was a founding member among a group of Guard officers involved in the organization of the National Guard Association in 1878. He resigned his commission in 1886 upon his election as Virginia’s governor. During his tenure, he became one of very few governors to ever deploy black Guard units in helping to quell a riot. When war came against Spain in 1898, he was one of several “retread” Confederate generals appointed by President William McKinley to command different corps of the Army. This was an effort to help bind the wounds of the Civil War by giving southern leaders positions of respect on a national level. The VII Corps (no connection to today’s VII Corps), numbering some 8,000 men, which Lee took to Cuba was composed almost entirely of state volunteer (Guard) units. His troops patrolled the city streets and maintained the peace until the Cuban independence was secured by treaty. The last of his units sailed home in March 1899.
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