When first-year engineering student Nick Johnson enlisted with the Army National Guard at age 17, he said, he didn’t think he would be sent off to war.
“I thought, ‘I’m in the National Guard. We don’t go to war,’ ” he said.
Two years later, in January 2003, Johnson found himself leaving his home base in Pierre, S.D., for a mobilization station at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.
Johnson had two weeks to create a living will, draft a power of attorney and obtain the necessary immunization shots for anthrax and typhoid, to name a few.
He received the call just two days before the start of his first semester at the University.
“I wish I had a little bit of time before I actually left,” he said.
But as part of a restructuring of the military, the Army National Guard is reorganizing its units to offer more predictability to deployments, officials said.
Another aspect of the change will shift the Army’s command from the central command force to lower command forces. That way, troops can be deployed more quickly and easily, an Army official said.
The Army National Guard’s restructuring is a result of the continuing global war on terrorism, said Major Kevin Olson,
a public affairs officer for the Minnesota Army and Air National Guard.
“Since Sept. 11, (2001), it has become evident that active military cannot do their jobs without the National Guard and the Army Reserve Forces Ö and the military has acknowledged that,” Olson said.
Now, the Army National Guard and the U.S. Army will transform into smaller, more agile units in less time, he said.
An emphasis would also be placed on the process of being deployed, from when one receives the assignment to the length of time he or she will be deployed, Olson said.
For Johnson, who spent 71 days at a Missouri base before leaving for a number of Middle Eastern destinations, the changes are positive.
“The morale was dropping. We wanted to get deployment over with and go home,” he said of his days at Fort Leonard Wood.
“The longer you’re at a mobilization station, the longer you’re away from your family.”
When Johnson reached Baqubah, Iraq, he guarded camps, prisoners of war and a transportation and supply bridge, which he helped build over the Tigris River.
At the beginning, Johnson was told he would be deployed for only six months. He returned home 12 months after deployment, he said.
The transformation of the Army National Guard mirrors that of the U.S. Army, Olson said.
Major Richard Johnson said that for soldiers in the U.S. Army, the restructuring would cause them to deploy more easily and quickly if required, which is the only downfall.
“Soldiers may have to move faster, because there is not as much lead time,” he said.
It would also shift command from the division headquarters of the military, which acts as the central command force, to the lower command forces.
“The brigade combat commander doesn’t have to ask anyone for troops, he already has them,” Richard Johnson said.
Assignments can include anything from human relief operations and peacekeeping to combat fighting.
Historically, soldiers would wait nine to 10 months before knowing their assignments. Now, that transition time has shortened to a span of at least four months because of the restructuring, Richard Johnson said.
A shift in the structuring of the U.S. Army has been an interest for many years.
“It’s been known as a slow-moving process, and everyone knows it,” said Bethany Baumer, a University sophomore in the Army National Guard.
The new changes, however, concern Eddie Lee, a member of the ROTC and Army National Guard, who said he is unsure how the structures would affect individual soldiers.
“Theoretically, it would be more efficient to have an entire group in one area Ö if everyone’s there, it’s easier,” said Lee, a biology junior.
But actually putting it in place is another story, he said.
The changes to the Army National Guard and U.S. Army are ongoing but might be complete in the next four years.
“It’s critical that we provide a structure with predictability so that in the future, we can allow soldiers to prepare families, schools – to get personal things in order,” Olson said.
“We learn from our mistakes. It has been a painful process.”