By C. Todd Lopez
WASHINGTON (April 11, 2019) -- Not every service member wears a uniform full time.
Some hold down civilian jobs most of the time and only occasionally put on their uniforms for regularly scheduled training; for deployments in support of the U.S. government when called upon or, in the case of National Guardsmen, to support their home state governors in times of local emergency or natural disaster.
What National Guardsmen and reservists have in common is they provide much-needed support to their active-duty counterparts, and they are an integral part of the U.S. military mission.
1- The National Guard includes nearly 450,000 soldiers and airmen.
2- On any day, some 30,000 guardsmen are mobilized around the world in support of combatant commanders.
3- The National Guard is represented in 2,600 communities across U.S. states, territories and the District of Columbia.
4- Some 10,000 guardsmen are involved in ongoing missions daily across the U.S. supporting North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command to protect the skies above the United States and participate in drug interdiction missions.
5- The Army Reserve has a presence in all 50 states, five U.S. territories and 30 countries. It has more than 200,000 soldiers and civilian employees spread across more than 2,000 units in 20 different time zones.
6- The Air Force Reserve's 70,000 airmen are operationally integrated with their active component counterparts.
7- The Navy Reserve is composed of 101,000 sailors: 48,000 reservists, 43,000 individual ready reservists and 10,000 full-time support members from every state and territory.
8- Since 2001, Navy reservists have mobilized more than 84,000 times to every theater of operation, including 3,310 mobilizations in fiscal year 2018.
9- In 2018, 2,135 reserve Marines mobilized supporting 35 operational requirements in each of the six geographic combatant commands. Likewise, nearly 14,000 reserve Marines participated in 76 training exercises, supporting requirements in 41 countries.
Leaders from the National Guard and Reserve components were on Capitol Hill April 10 to tell lawmakers just how busy their service members are.
Click here to learn what National Guard and reserve leaders said to Congress.
