then Add to Home Screen.
A Seat at the Table
If a movie was ever made about the biggest NGAUS legislative victory in the last 100-plus years, the most dramatic scene would no doubt be a Senate hearing in late 2011 that opponents thought would derail the effort.
Momentum had grown steadily on Capitol Hill that year to add the chief of the National Guard Bureau to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Legislation to that effect had surprisingly passed the House in May. And by early October, 61 co-sponsors backed a similar bill in the Senate, the National Guard Empowerment and State-National Defense Integration Act of 2011.
But the deal was far from sealed. A vote was not guaranteed, and opponents were still looking for ways to cast the bill in a bad light. That included Senate Armed Services Committee leaders, who reached out to the Pentagon where they knew they would find like minds.
Ultimately, the SASC scheduled a hearing on the matter for Nov. 11. The witness panel included the Defense Department general counsel, all six permanent JCS members (the chairman, the vice and all four service chiefs) and the NGB chief. The stage was set for a strong show of opposition.
Opponents initially got the show they wanted. The DoD general counsel was the first witness called, followed by each JCS member. All seven panned the idea of a Guard seat at the table, arguing that it was unnecessary and would only create confusion.
Their testimony was akin to a baseball game beginning with seven consecutive home runs.
Air Force Gen. Craig R. McKinley, the 27th NGB chief, was the final witness. He was the Guard’s first four-star general. He was an invited guest to most JCS meetings, but with the understanding that he would speak only when spoken to.
The hearing put McKinley in a tough spot. On the one hand, the Florida Air Guardsman was a believer in the legislation. He also represented nearly a half-million Guard Soldiers and Airmen. On the other hand, his opinion would conflict with his four-star colleagues, all seated with him, and he didn’t want to, as he says now, “antagonize” them. He ended up being the panel’s lone voice of support.
“Adding the chief of the National Guard Bureau to the JCS, in my opinion, would ensure that in the post-9/11 security environment the National Guard’s non-federalized role in homeland defense and civil-support missions will be fully represented in all JCS deliberations,” McKinley testified.
“This would not detract, in my opinion, in any way from its other critical JCS functions.”
SASC members had the chance to question the panel. Some of the first were co-sponsors. They asked pointed questions, but the witnesses hardly budged.
Then came Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. He was the co-chair of the Senate National Guard Caucus and one of the bill’s original co-sponsors. He was also a former South Carolina Air Guard JAG officer adept at unraveling less-than-favorable testimony.
Graham held the hearing spellbound for seven minutes, repeatedly getting opponents on the panel to make his case. He got Gen. James F. Amos, the Marine Corps commandant, to concede the citizen-soldier predates the Marines and fired the first shot of the American Revolution.
He then forced Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the JCS chairman, to acknowledge that natural disasters are a threat to the nation and the Guard is the military’s first responder, but he had no contact with the adjutants general. Dempsey also admitted he could kick McKinley out of the room if, as Graham put it, the NGB chief ever “pissed” him off.
Graham explained that President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign document, Blueprint for Change, called for making the NGB chief a permanent JCS member. He then asked the Pentagon general counsel if the commander in chief had changed his mind.
“Not to my knowledge,” Jeh Johnson replied.
“You’re not here to tell us he’s wrong, are you?” Graham asked.
Johnson stuttered and said, “The president and vice president are above my pay grade.”
Graham also reminded the hearing the Pentagon had also fought giving the Marine Corps a permanent seat in 1978 and adamantly opposed the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act, which transformed the JCS into an advisory body and created the position of vice chairman.
“How many of you believe [Goldwater-Nichols] doesn’t work?” he asked. “Speak up. Nobody? All right.”
Those seven home runs now looked more like singles followed by outs on the basepaths. Graham, meanwhile, had hit a grand slam.
“Lindsey Graham gave every member of the SASC, the Joint Chiefs and Jeh Johnson a civics lesson,” McKinley now says.
The hearing bolstered momentum for Guard Empowerment. After it concluded, two more senators announced their support. One was Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., who had stood in for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., as the ranking Republican. Inhofe said the hearing won his support. McCain had been conspicuously absent.
I thought all along that we could pass it in the Senate, but probably not in the House.
—Retired Maj. Gen. Gus L. Hargett Jr., the NGAUS president, 2010-2017
The SASC hearing was a seminal moment of the 2011 Guard Empowerment campaign, but it was only one chapter in a nearly 15-year odyssey.
The story begins in 1997 with the release of the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review, which proposed cutting 45,000 Army Guard troops. Angered that Guard leaders had no input in the plan, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, wanted to give the Guard more of a voice in its future. With the assistance of NGAUS, he introduced an amendment to the Senate version of the fiscal 1998 National Defense Authorization Act to elevate the NGB chief to the JCS.
Stevens’ amendment passed on a voice vote, but there was no corresponding House language. In the end, House and Senate negotiators reconciling the different bills compromised and provided both the Guard and Reserve with permanent two-star advisory positions to the JCS chairman.
Nine years later, with the Guard engaged in combat overseas, lawmakers and the association resumed their effort. Reps. Tom Davis, R-Va., and Gene Taylor, D-Miss., both leaders in the House National Guard and Reserve Caucus, and Sens. Kit Bond, R-Mo., and. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the co-chairs of the Senate National Guard Caucus, introduced identical versions of the National Guard Empowerment Act of 2006.
After two years of discussion, the fiscal 2008 NDAA adopted many of the Guard Empowerment provisions, including a fourth star for the NGB chief and making the Guard Bureau a DoD joint activity. However, there was still no seat at the table.
Guard supporters in Congress tried to build on their success and introduced Guard Empowerment legislation in 2008, 2009 and 2010 but found little traction, especially in the House.
By 2011, NGAUS leaders decided more was needed to empower the Guard. The JCS chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen at the time, invited McKinley to most meetings, but being in the room didn’t equal a seat at the table.
The association made a permanent seat on the JCS its top priority and began socializing the goal on Capitol Hill and among the states and territories. NGAUS also developed a press campaign to put the issue in front of the public. One of the first press releases was a reminder that a seat at the table was a 2008 Obama campaign promise.
Legislation was already in play. In January, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W. Va., and Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W. Va., introduced the Guardians of Freedom Act of 2011 in their respective chambers. Both cited their close relationship with Maj. Gen. Allen Tackett, the state’s adjutant general.
It didn’t take long for the Pentagon to voice opposition. In a May 9 letter to Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the SASC chairman, Liz King, the assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs, wrote “adding the CNGB to the JCS would introduce inconsistencies among its members and create the unhelpful impression that the National Guard is a separate Military Service.”
In the ensuing months, other opponents often cited King’s arguments.
Never underestimate the influence of the National Guard.
—Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to reporters in December 2011
Undeterred by vocal Pentagon opposition, Leahy and Graham, the new Republican co-chair of the Senate National Guard Caucus, introduced what became known as Empowerment II on May 19. The comprehensive bill, which succeeded the Guardians of Freedom Act in the Senate, included a Guard seat on the JCS and a three-star NGB vice chief.
The effort then received an unexpected break May 26. The House Armed Services Committee didn’t include Guard Empowerment in its version of the fiscal 2012 NDAA, but during final House consideration of the legislation, Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., joined Rahall to introduce an amendment to elevate the NGB chief to the JCS and create a three-star vice chief. It passed unanimously by voice vote.
Miller later told retired Maj. Gen. Gus L. Hargett Jr., then the NGAUS president, that she acted after reading a cover story on Guard Empowerment in NATIONAL GUARD. Her husband, a retired Air Guard officer, was an association member and received the magazine.
“I thought all along that we could pass it in the Senate but probably not in the House,” Hargett says. “I think most members in the House thought it to be a very harmless amendment, a nice message to send the Guard. They didn’t think we could get it through the Senate.”
But the House action allowed NGAUS to focus on generating Senate co-sponsors. The legislative staff worked with their counterparts in the upper chamber while Hargett, the adjutants general and the state associations went directly to the principals. Association members also got involved, sending more than 17,000 emails to their elected representatives through the Write to Congress feature on the association website.
“It was a very grassroots effort,” Hargett says. “The people who are most connected to those legislators are the guys back home. They made it happen.”
“We were all just so united and motivated,” adds retired Maj. Gen. Frank Vavala, then the NGAUS chairman of the board and the adjutant general of Delaware. “We had gone too long without having our own voice on the Joint Chiefs. And we were now so close.”
The association converted a small conference room in the NGAUS headquarters into an Empowerment situation room to track progress. A press release was issued each time a senator announced their sponsorship. The association also regularly updated the 54 as the bandwagon began to roll. Seven senators signed up in May. Twenty-three added their names in June, 15 in July and 14 more in August and September.
“I remember Senator Leahy saying to me, ‘If we’re going to have any traction, we’ve got to find 50 co-sponsors,’” Hargett recalls. “And when we got to 50, what did he say? ‘You probably need 60 to get it to the floor [if it didn’t win SASC approval] and become filibuster-proof. And when we got to 60, I’ll never forget Senator Leahy’s office said, ‘You know, if we had 70 co-sponsors, we would probably be bulletproof.”
The legislation ultimately garnered 71 co-sponsors and a Nov. 28 floor vote, where it passed as an amendment to the full Senate version of the fiscal 2012 NDAA. The SASC didn’t include in its version.
Opponents tried to limit the NGB chief’s role on the JCS during final negotiations between the House and Senate on differences in their two bills, but to no avail. On Dec. 12, conferees announced the final legislation included a JCS seat for the Guard a three-star position NGB vice chief.
“Never underestimate the influence of the National Guard,” McCain told reporters that evening.
Hargett says he saw McCain on Capitol Hill shortly thereafter. “He congratulated me,” Hargett says. “He said, ‘I never thought you guys had a chance.’”
Obama signed the fiscal 2012 NDAA on Dec. 31, finalizing what NGAUS believes is its biggest victory since the Militia Act of 1903, also known as the Dick Act after its author, Maj. Gen. Charles Dick, an Ohio Guard general, member of the House and the association president. It laid the groundwork for the modern Guard.
My successors institutionalized the position [on the Joint Chiefs of Staff] and really built a stronger National Guard Bureau.
—Retired Gen. Craig R. McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, 2008-2012
McKinley attended his first meeting as a permanent JCS member in early January 2012. Tensions from the November SASC hearing had not yet subsided, even though he had been to meetings as an invited guest in the two months since.
“It was fairly icy,” McKinley recalls. “I think they had all gone to that hearing thinking, Oh, this will never happen. Don’t worry about it. This will come and go. I don’t think any of these guys thought this was going to be a pivotal moment in history. From our perspective, it was.”
And it all became a reality the day the JCS officially went from six to seven members.
The JCS staff has an official picture taken of the members when there is a change in the group’s composition. The addition of the NGB chief necessitated a new portrait that day.
“Admiral [Jonathan] Greenert, the chief of naval operations, looks over at me and goes, ‘McKinley, we have to take another picture in our service dress, because of you,” McKinley recalls. “He was trying to be funny, but he made a point, because I think the other guys felt it too. Why the hell do we have to have another picture with this guy in it? That pretty much set the table for the rest of my time, until I retired later that year.”
McKinley says the seat at the table was also a big adjustment for NGB. He says his staff did a “great job,” but it was suddenly closer to the forefront of the Pentagon with only about 1/5 of the staff resources of his new peers. This meant his immediate staff had to grow and learn on the job.
“My successors institutionalized the position and really built a stronger National Guard Bureau,” he says. “They’ve also shown senior Pentagon leaders the train-organize-and-equip piece of the National Guard, and how important it is during national disasters — man-made and natural.”
Retired Army Gen. Frank J. Grass took over as NGB chief in September 2012 after serving as the deputy commander of U.S. Northern Command. The Missouri Army Guard officer says the seat on the JCS moved the channel of communications the Guard Bureau provides between the states and the Pentagon up to the secretary of defense and the president during domestic disasters.
When Superstorm Sandy roared up the East Coast in October 2012, he says three times when he was in “small group” meetings with federal agencies the president called to get an update on response plans. He said he would provide the latest Guard actions.
“That would have never happened if we weren’t a member of the JCS,” Grass says.
“And it hit me right then and there that I worked for the secretary of defense and the president and I needed to keep them informed,” he says. “If something was happening in the states and it involved the Guard, I wanted them to know about it before they saw it on the news. I would first call Marty [Dempsey, the JCS chairman], day or night. We’d have a conversation about the situation, and he would decide if the secretary needed to know, and most of the time he did.”
But Grass says his place on the JCS wasn’t limited to domestic response.
“If a topic in one of our meetings dealt with something in the homeland, I usually got a lot of emphasis,” he explains, “But if it dealt with anything else around the world — the combat force, distribution of forces, prioritization of effort — [Dempsey] would always ask me, ‘Frank, what’s your recommendation?’ He never passed me on a vote.”
Retired Army Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson, the NGB chief from 2020 to 2024, had similar experiences.
He says the Guard was a major focus of leaders in the nation’s capital in January 2021. Protesters had attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The inauguration of a new president was only two weeks away, and 25,000 Guard Soldiers and Airmen from around the country were quickly deploying to secure Washington, D.C.
“We had the highest level of attention,” Hokanson says. “The secretary of defense, the chairman and other officials from both the incoming and outgoing administrations were all asking questions. And I was there to talk about the deployments, to talk about all the states and territories participating, to explain how everything worked.”
He was no less busy several months later during the hectic U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan.
“Some of the last units on the ground were Guard units,” he says. “I literally tracked every single airplane until the last one, knowing which one of our Guard guys are on what planes or what air crews generally were going to be Guardsmen. Having that visibility of everything our Guardsmen were doing was so critical, because now you’re included in all those conversations in the Pentagon.”
The Oregon Army Guard officer had an academic interest in a Guard seat at the table long before he had any inkling he would one day sit there.
While attending the Naval Postgraduate School as a major in 1999, he pitched a thesis paper for his master’s degree suggesting the NGB chief should be a four-star general and a member of the JCS.
“‘Dan, it will never happen,’” his advisor told him. “You need to change your thesis.”
That advisor was Paul Stockton, who served as assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and Americas’ security affairs from 2009 to 2013. He later was a member of the Reserve Forces Policy Board.
It did happen, thanks in large part to the persistence of NGAUS and the rest of the Guard community along with Capitol Hill supporters like Graham, who predicted in the 2011 SASC hearing that “the citizen-soldier’s time has come.”
John Goheen is the NGAUS director of communications. He can be reached at [email protected].
TOP PHOTO: (from left) Adm. James A, Winnefeld Jr., vice chairman | Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman | Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, Air Force chief of staff | Gen. James F. Amos, Marine Corps commandant | Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, Army chief of staff | Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, chief of naval operations | and Gen. Craig R. McKinley, National Guard Bureau chief, pose for a picture on McKinley’s first day as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in January 2012. (DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
NGB CHIEFS ON THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF
Gen. Craig R. McKinley
Florida Air National Guard
2012
Gen. Frank J. Grass
Missouri Army National Guard
2012-2016
Gen. Joseph L. Lengyel
Texas Air National Guard
2016–2020
Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson
Oregon Army National Guard
2020-2024
Gen. Steven S. Nordhaus
Ohio Air National Guard
2024-Present
