The Alaska Air National Guard’s ability to conduct vital national security missions for the United States is being degraded by staffing changes ordered by the National Guard Bureau, according to a local guard commander.
The Alaska Air National Guard is under the direction of the Adjutants General Association of the United States, which provides state and national military security to 54 states and territories through the National Guard Bureau, headquartered near Washington. In January, the Air National Guard announced staffing changes across all Active Guard Reserve (AGR) positions in every state to take place by Sept. 30.
The Epoch Times spoke to Brig. Gen. Brian Kile about its impact on Alaska. The Last Frontier is largely considered a strategic foothold of the West Coast tasked with keeping a watchful eye on Russian aircraft near the region, thwarting the threat of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and more.
Brig. Gen. Kile has served as commander of the Alaska Air National Guard for the past 14 months. Having served more than 34 years in the military, he has fulfilled multiple capacities throughout his career. He has piloted search and rescue helicopters, as well as aerial refueling tanker aircraft.
For him, the staffing changes, termed “cross-leveling,” can be likened to “reshuffling positions between the 54 states and territories to level the playing field across each state.” Eighty AGR positions will be removed from Alaska to be replaced by 88 dual military technicians, he said. But these new positions receive less pay, which would also become taxable.
Technicians would also no longer be eligible for TRICARE, the most comprehensive medical plan for servicemembers and their families, according to the commander. Rather, they would be required to contribute monthly to a civilian medical plan. They would lose the opportunity to have an active-duty pension after 20 years of service.
Public affairs officer for the Air National Guard headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, Lt. Col. Amber Schatz, told The Epoch Times that the initiative would “amount to more full-time authorizations.”
“Alaska leadership has full authority to move these resources to change affected positions in order to meet mission,” Lt. Col. Schatz said.
But according to Brig. Gen. Kile, technicians are not able to conduct the same missions as AGR personnel. These include tasks directly associated with the defense of the United States. With the decision to replace the Alaska Air National Guard’s essential personnel with those less capable of performing necessary missions, he said, “they didn’t consider Alaska’s mission and location.”
Mission Degradation
The Alaska Air National Guard is also responsible for refueling America’s jet fighters should they be launched to defend the country. It also conducts space warning operations, using ground-based radar for missile warning and defense. It performs search and rescue operations for military and civilians alike.“Technicians are not able to serve in any one of those mission sets,” Brig. Gen. Kile said. “The message we have sent to our CODEL [Congressional Member Delegation] and combat commanders is that we’re going to be mission degraded to the point of failure in all four of our missions by the end of the year.”
Lt. Col. Schatz disagreed.
“There is no substantive analysis showing mission failure driven by this initiative as leadership possesses the resources and ability to place its personnel in the appropriate military status according to laws and regulations in order to defend the nation,” she said.
However, Brig. Gen. Kile and his peers have calculated a 40 percent degradation in air defense and a 60 percent degradation in search and rescue capabilities within the next three to four months. According to an analysis obtained by The Epoch Times, the Alaska Air National Guard also expects a 40 percent reduction in air refueling capability and a possible 50 percent degradation in space warning operations by October.
As a result, the Alaska Air National Guard is asking higher authorities and congress members for “a two-year stay” that would halt the continued rollout of the plan to reduce their mission capability. During this interim, Brig. Gen. Kile and others would ask for a thorough operational, personnel, and legal analysis of the National Guard Bureau’s decision, which severely harms Alaska’s national security mission and more.
Alan Brown, director of communications and public affairs for the Alaska National Guard and the Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, said it cannot be overstated “just how concerned we are about what will happen to our ability to conduct these essential homeland defense missions.”
“Our commanders and staff conduct daily analysis on everything from aircraft and crew readiness to logistics and medical status, there’s nothing in our analysis that suggests we can continue conducting business as usual if we lose these AGR positions to dual status technicians,” he said.
“Something will have to give; that’s a scary proposition given that we are serving in one of the most operationally demanding locations in the country.”
Brig. Gen. Kile emphasized that his views don’t reflect those of the Department of Defense, the Department of the Air Force, or the Alaska Air National Guard.
