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What did you miss at the 147th General Conference & Exhibition in Milwaukee last month?
Much of the conference is now available on the NGAUS YouTube channel.
Well, there was Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, the first career National Guard officer to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“The Guard has given me far more than I could ever give back,” he said. “I’m gifted to have this incredible vantage point of seeing what the Guard does for the nation, not only overseas but right here at home.”
Two other JCS members were also on the agenda.
Air Force Gen. Steven S. Nordhaus, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, was joined by Senior Enlisted Advisor John T. Raines III to outline their priorities and take questions from the audience.
The third JCS member was Gen. Randy A. George, the chief of staff of the Army, who addressed attendees last year. George addressed changes ahead, including acquisition reform, and also fielded questions from the audience.
For the first time, the NGAUS conference included panel discussions. The first group of subject matter experts tackled the strategic importance of the Guard in the Indo-Pacific from several perspectives.
Moderated by Pennsylvania Army Guard Col. Nicholle Gousie, the assistant chief of staff for National Guard affairs at U.S. Army Pacific, the panel included Hawaii Army Guard Maj. Gen. Lance Okamura, the deputy commander-homeland affairs at USARPAC; Delaware Air Guard Brig. Gen. Carla Riner, the Air Guard Advisor to the A/3 at Pacific Air Forces; Brig. Gen. Paul Sellars, Washington’s assistant adjutant general-Army; and Col. Carol Staufer, the assistant chief of staff for intelligence at USARPAC.
Moderated by Dan Fata, a senior advisor with the Center for Strategic and International Security, the second panel took on the emerging issue of drone warfare from several perspectives. Brig. Gen. Mitchell Johnson, the adjutant general of North Dakota, and Maj. Gen. Shawn Manke, the adjutant general of Minnesota, spoke to the Guard’s role, while U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Rebecca L. Albert, the deputy director of operations at U.S. Northern Command, took a broader vantage point and Jack De Santis provided insight from his time serving as a drone operator in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Gen. John D. Lamontagne, the commander of Air Mobility Command, stressed the importance of the Air Guard’s contributions to his command’s core missions of global airlift, refueling and aeromedical evacuation.
Lamontagne consistently noted the contribution of the Guard to the mission. “We cannot do our mission without this talented team,” he said.
The Roll Call of the States is among the other videos available.
Check out the NGAUS YouTube channel for more videos.
—NGAUS staff report
