Five questions for the outgoing chief of the National Guard Bureau

The twenty ninth chief of the Nationwide Guard Bureau relinquished command Friday, retiring after 4 many years of service.

Gen. Daniel Hokanson, 61, beforehand served because the director of the Military Nationwide Guard and eleventh vice chief of the Nationwide Guard Bureau earlier than taking the submit as bureau chief in 2020.

The Joyful Camp, California, native commissioned as an Military second lieutenant after graduating from the U.S. Navy Academy at West Level in 1986.

As an aviation officer, Hokanson served as a scout platoon chief and flight operations officer with 2nd Squadron, ninth Cavalry, seventh Infantry Division, throughout Operation Simply Trigger in Panama in 1990. Hokanson left the lively Military for the Oregon Military Nationwide Guard in 1995.

By way of numerous postings and promotions, Hokanson would later serve in each Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the place he commanded the forty first Infantry Brigade throughout their March 2008 to July 2010 deployment.

Hokanson spoke with Military Instances about his four-year tenure as chief of the Nationwide Guard Bureau, which oversees the Military Nationwide Guard and Air Nationwide Guard. Responses have been edited for size and readability.

Navy Instances: What was the place of the Guard whenever you took command?

Daniel Hokanson: For those who return to August of 2020 once I got here into the job, it was the peak of COVID-19, we didn’t have a vaccination but. We had a variety of civil unrest throughout the nation. It was a busy time for the Guard. That summer season in in the future we had 120,000 Guardsmen mobilized for COVID and civil disturbances. We additionally had a number of giant deployments at the moment as nicely. Then, in fact, we had the vaccination late that 12 months. And in early 2021 we had the occasions surrounding Jan. 6 once we mobilized 26,000 Guardsmen from each state and territory, they usually had been there for the president’s inauguration. While you roll that into, as soon as once more, some severe pure catastrophe years with wildfires, hurricanes, flooding after which we had the withdrawal from Afghanistan, it was form of like one factor after one other.

What did you draw from that, trying again?

I feel the widespread theme, all of which nonetheless amazes me as we speak, is that no matter what was occurring, the Guard met each single mission set they got. It’s only a testomony to the worth of getting the Nationwide Guard. So, when our native capabilities, both right here or army capabilities, are exceeded, the Guard is all the time there to supply functionality and capability when and the place our nation wants it.

How has the Guard modernized together with the lively Military over these previous 4 years?

Previous to turning into chief, I used to be the director of the Military Nationwide Guard and one of many issues we had been in a position to do then was reestablish the division pressure construction of the Guard. We had all these disparate models so what we did was reestablish the eight divisions within the Guard, and by doing that, the overall Military went from 10 divisions, solely on the lively aspect, to 18 whole divisions when together with the Guard. We need to have sufficient functionality to discourage anyone from doing something, so we don’t attain struggle. Once I have a look at all our formations, I guarantee they seem like their active-duty counterparts in order that when a combatant commander has them deployed to her or him, they can be utilized similar to an active-duty unit. That’s meant upgrading communications tools, enhancing upkeep schedules and coaching for Guardsmen. On the air aspect we’ve greater than 1,000 plane within the Air Nationwide Guard. We fly every thing besides the B-1 bomber and the B-52. We’ve bought F-35s. So, we’ve bought a variety of expertise and functionality in our fighter squadrons.

The lively Military has struggled with recruiting in recent times however excelled at retention. How’s the Guard doing on that entrance?

We’re doing extraordinarily nicely. We’re assembly all our recruiting objectives and we’re scheduled to fulfill our end-strength by the top of this fiscal 12 months. A part of that’s as a result of proposition that we’re totally different and we’re searching for a unique form of particular person. Just like the lively part, we’re searching for individuals who need to serve their nation, but in addition individuals who need to reside the place they need to reside. I feel it’s one of many explanation why our recruiting goes so nicely.

How have Guardsmen tailored to the continued tempo of deployments that began after 9/11 and has continued?

All people within the Guard proper now who has are available after 9/11 or reenlisted after 9/11 got here in with the expectation that they will deploy abroad. On a day-to-day foundation we’re most likely at 23,000 deployed Guardsmen across the globe. And once I go to these models a variety of these troopers say, “Hey, I can’t wait for an additional alternative to deploy.” That’s a part of our mannequin, which is on a five-year cycle for unit deployments. While you return to Jan. 28 once we had the drone strike on the Al-Tanf garrison in Syria, we had 41 Guardsmen wounded that day. That reveals the form of presence that we’ve bought within the Center East and everywhere in the world. I visited that unit they usually actually understood the worth of what they had been doing.