NCNGA Weekly Guardsman for August 11, 2022
August 11th, 2022
News | About | Legislative | Benefits | Contact
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IN THIS EDITION:
Join NC4ME and the NC Business Center for a networking social! NCNGA
Minuteman Minute: New Episode Available NGAUS
Burn Pit Bill Ready for President’s Signature NGAUS
82nd Airborne troops test Army’s next-generation combat goggle Army.mil
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 11th — 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.
Minuteman Minute: New Episode Available NGAUS
George C. Marshall famously served as Chief of Staff of the Army during the Second World War, but did you know he spent time as a National Guard instructor? This Minuteman Minute explores his time as the senior instructor of the Illinois National Guard’s 33rd Infantry Division.
Burn Pit Bill Ready for President’s Signature NGAUS
Several years in the making, legislation to expand access to health care benefits to service members with illnesses related to exposure to toxics from overseas burn pits will soon be law.
Last week, the Senate voted 86-11 to pass the Sgt. First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act.
The measure will fund research and benefits to an estimated 3.5 million veterans suffering from health conditions developed after exposure to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.
President Joe Biden will sign it into law tomorrow, but the Department of Veterans Affairs already has a website detailing who is eligible for benefits and how to begin filing claims. The site has resources for surviving spouses to determine their eligibility for benefits, too.
Introduced in May by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., the chairman and ranking Republican of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, respectively, the PACT Act adds 23 conditions to the VA’s “presumptive disability” list, meaning veterans don’t have to prove an illness relates to military service.
Under the law, 31 new VA health care facilities will be created across 19 states, with the goal of increasing the agency’s claim processing capacity. The bill also has provisions to improve resources for training VA health care and benefits professionals.
The bill was named after an Ohio Army National Guard soldier who served in Iraq and Kosovo. Robinson died in 2020 from toxic exposure resulting from his military service.
The Military Times first reported on respiratory illnesses among service members in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008, but it was several years later the use of burn pits was restricted.
Burn pits were large areas on bases where plastics, rubber, medical waste and other garbage was incinerated. Exposure to the fumes resulted in respiratory illnesses among some veterans.
Besides expanding coverage to those exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam and toxins in the Persian Gulf, the PACT Act incorporates the Camp Lejeune Justice Act.
Introduced last November, the bipartisan bill seeks to grant judicial relief to Marines and their families who are suffering due to water contamination while stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
The PACT Act’s passage may be easy compared to executing its provisions.
As of January, the VA had roughly 260,000 first-time, general benefit claims.
82nd Airborne troops test Army’s next-generation combat goggle Army.mil
FORT BRAGG, North Carolina — 82nd Airborne Division Paratroopers helping the Army make decisions on its newest program to provide Infantry Soldiers with a mixed reality headset.
Working toward a future when cloud services, squad radios, and necessary combat information can be combined and visualized on a set of futuristic goggles, Soldiers with the 2nd Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team are rehearsing combat missions under sweltering 100 degree-plus heat, high humidity, and even a few thunderstorms.
According to Program Executive Office Soldier, the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) may one day integrate next generation 24/7 situational awareness tools and high-resolution digital sensors to deliver a single platform that improves Soldier sensing, decision making, target acquisition, and target engagement.
Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said during first looks at IVAS, “Remember early satellite phones from the 1980s that wealthy people had in their cars? They were big and clunky and now we have iPhones. It took us some time to get there.”
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 11th — Today in Guard History National Guard
1965
Los Angeles, California – What should have been a routine traffic stop in the Watts neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles developed into one of the worst racial riots in American history. Tensions between the African American community and city law enforcement erupted into war-like acts as snipers and arsonists attacked the police and fire department personal sent to quell the disturbance. In one of the largest deployments of aid to civil authority in American history up to that time, 12,758 California Guardsmen, drawn from two divisions (7,560 men from the 40th Armored and 5,198 from the 49th Infantry), were put on the streets to help restore order and protect people and property. Air Guard units from California and Arizona flew a total of 18 C-97 and five C-119 transport aircraft to airlift the 49th Division’s men from Northern California to the LA area. While a number of Guardsmen returned sniper fire, it remains unclear if any civilians were killed by the Guard. After six days and nights of terror the city’s streets were restored to peace, but at a very high cost; 34 dead (no Guardsmen), more than 1,000 injured (including several Guardsmen), 4,000 arrested and over 1,000 buildings destroyed. Government and civic leaders, including some in the black community, praised the Guardsmen for their courage, devotion to duty and fair treatment of citizens regardless of race. Four Guardsmen were award the California Military Cross for bravery.
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