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Rep. John James, R-Mich., a former active Army Apache pilot turned Guard advocate in Congress, on Wednesday visited the National Guard Memorial for a meeting with retired Maj. Gen. Francis M. McGinn, the association president.
Their conversation focused on fighter recapitalization and benefits parity for Guardsmen and their families.
Early last week, James and Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., introduced the Air National Guard Squadron Preservation which would require the Air Force to sustain fighter aircraft procurement and production to fully recapitalize the Air National Guard.
If passed, it would ensure the aging A-10C Thunderbolt II fighter squadron at Selfridge Air National Guard Base ─ which is in James’ district ─ would be recapitalized.
The measure, James said, speaks to the importance and cost-effectiveness of the Guard. Air Guard fighter units represent 21% of the total Air Force and 30% of its combat power yet come at 40% of the cost.
“The key issue to remember here is that the National Guard is absolutely vital to maintain our national security, defense of the homeland,” he argued. “And when you look at the cost of the Guard versus the outsized role it plays in defense of this nation and also maintaining a highly trained, flexible fighting force that can be deployed the world over in a moment's notice.”
“What this bill helps to do is it essentially rationalizes the force and begins to place more emphasis on the value of the Guard,” James said after the meeting.
The bill also would require the Air Force to continue production and procurement of an “advanced-capability fighter aircraft” and a “fifth-generation fighter aircraft” to replace all legacy-capability fighter aircraft within each ANG fighter unit.
The bill is a complement to the bipartisan Fighter Force Preservation and Recapitalization Act introduced in early March and of which James is a co-sponsor.
The West Point graduate said the Guard is the “utility player of the entire nation” and is performing their role “at much less of a cost of their active-duty counterparts.”
“It's essentially the civilian leadership in our government telling the [Department of Defense] folks that they will come up with a plan to make sure that we are deploying all resources wisely and deploying those resources wisely, to include making sure that we don't starve the Guard in some perverse attempt to maintain fiefdoms in different sectors all over the world,” stated James, who has been a staunch supporter of Guardsmen in the House since 2023.
Earlier this year, he introduced the Reforming Education for Veterans Act to ensure that would allow any servicemember ─ including the reserve component ─ who receives orders to enter into an agreement with an institution of higher education to finish their courses if they have completed at least 50% already completed.
The legislation was inspired by a meeting with Guardsmen at Selfridge and hearing about the obstacles they faced in completing their education.
It might seem odd that James, who served for eight years on active duty and was a Ranger-qualified aviation officer, would be a fierce voice on behalf of the Guard. But not to James.
He explained that he trained, deployed and fought with Guardsmen.
“Not only did I have personal experience with these heroes, these warfighters, were some of the best trained and most effective combat leaders that I served with,” he explained.
Guardsmen often are doing more with less, he added.
“Coming back to an active-duty base, I almost took it for granted that we had our health care right there,” James said. “Anything that we needed, the Army paid for to make sure that we maintain our readiness.
“Guardsmen don't have that. Guardsmen live in a world where they have to pay out of their own pocket,” he stated.
“It's my job to make sure that we get the funding, to make sure that we get the air cover and the bills that I've been proposing every minute that I've been in Congress has been in support of that mission,” asserted James.
In the 118th Congress, James helped secure authorization for additional F-15EX fighters, as well as appropriations required for the additional aircraft.
James sees the Guard’s current lack of equipment and benefits parity with the active component as a “a symptom of the prejudice that the Guard has dealt with” over the years.
“What is an asset that is both cost-effective and lethal, which deserves more investment? I believe the opposite is happening, because the political strength of the Pentagon is leveled against the Guard for some reason or the other, that we need to begin to change that mindset. We need to begin telling the truth and letting folks know the great asset that we have in the Guard,” argued James.
─ By Jennifer Hickey
