ARLINGTON, Va., (Army News Service, Nov. 24, 2010) - Dwell time, the time spent at home between deployments, may increase in next year for members of the Army National Guard, the service's senior leader said in a recent interview.
"Hopefully, we're going to have fewer mobilizations in 2011, because of the downsizing of our presence in Iraq," said Maj. Gen. Raymond Carpenter, acting director of the Army National Guard. "This will give us a chance to ... (give) our Soldiers ... a little more time at home."
He added that the Army Guard will still have a presence in Afghanistan. "We've got a number of National Guard units there, and we see that as a steady state through at least mid-summer of next year," he added.
"We've got some great Soldiers that have done some great work over the last nine years since 9/11," Carpenter said. "With an all volunteer force, that's pretty impressive."
Carpenter emphasized Soldiers would continue to come first saying that the number one priority for 2011 would be end-strength across the Army Guard. If you don't have the people, the rest of what the Guard does is a distant second, he said.
"People are our most important priority, and if we have the right number of people and the right kind of people, we'll have a successful National Guard," Carpenter said. "We just need to give our Soldiers a chance to take a knee and catch their breath."
(Sgt. Darron Salzer serves with the National Guard Bureau.)
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