The chairman of the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro, told the House Armed Services Committee last week that DOD has made a “flawed assumption” with its supposition that Guardsmen and Reservists engaged in overseas combat also remain trained to handle emergencies on US soil. “There is ample testimony not only from senior military officials that that doesn’t work anymore; there’s concrete evidence from 9/11 and from Katrina that that doesn’t work,” he said, emphasizing the need for identification of civil support mission requirements. “Since the Department of Defense has not identified requirements for the civil support mission, they don’t have mission essential task lists that our military trains against for those missions,” said Punaro.
Members of the Air Force Reserve’s 920th Rescue Wing helped save 11 airplane crash survivors off the coast of Florida on May 12. The Reserve Airmen were flying an HC-130J Combat King II and an HH-60W Jolly Green II on a routine training flight when a Coast Guard call diverted…