The National Guard Adjutants General quickly pounced on statements and rumors about impending Air Force and Army troop cuts that would include reserve as well as active forces. Firing off a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Maj. Gen. Roger Lempke, Nebraska’s TAG and president of the Adjutants General Association of the United States, entreats him “in the strongest possible terms” to refrain from unilateral action and to consider the low cost of the highly used Guard resource. This promises to be another bloody battle, at least equal to the attack on the USAF plan to cut ANG force structure under BRAC 2005—on that, too, TAGs (and governors) claimed they were blindsided.
The U.S. military is maintaining a beefed-up presence in the Middle East, including fighters and air defense assets, following the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities June 22 and subsequent retaliation by the Iranians against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
