NGAUS Conference

For the second consecutive year, the NGAUS general conference featured a range of voices tackling issues relevant to National Guard leaders at every echelon.

“Together, we need to lead boldly, and we can never be late to need.” That’s how Air Force Gen. Steve Nordhaus, the 30th Chief of the National Guard Bureau, challenged National Guard leaders to keep pace with a dynamic security environment. He described the Guard as a force that continuously adapts and modernizes while keeping its 435,000 Guardsmen and their families ready for missions at home and abroad.

Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the acting Army chief of staff, emphasized the Army National Guard’s indispensable, multidomain contributions to the Joint Force Aug. 29 at the 148th General Conference & Exhibition in Indianapolis.

During a panel discussion at the 148th General Conference & Exhibition in Indianapolis, Bob Darling, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who served in the White House, and Heather “Lucky” Penney, a retired District of Columbia Air National Guard F-16 pilot, recounted how they scrambled to respond as a hijacked airliner headed toward the nation’s capital that morning.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Gary Keefe, the adjutant general of Massachusetts and a member of the NGAUS board of directors for the last 10 years, is now the association’s chairman of the board.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds received the NGAUS Harry S. Truman Award, the association’s highest honor, Sunday, during the 148th General Conference & Exhibition in Indianapolis.

The wars in Iran and Ukraine demonstrate the nature of warfare has moved away from traditional battlefields. The impact that evolution has on the National Guard both at home and abroad is the focus of one of three NGAUS panel discussions.

One of the two District of Columbia Air National Guard fighter pilots sent on a potential suicide mission the morning of September 11, 2001, will share that experience Sunday morning at the 148th General Conference & Exhibition in Indianapolis.

An Indiana National Guard infantry company that fought in the Vietnam War will receive the U.S. military’s highest honor Saturday during the opening ceremony of the 148th Geneal Conference & Exhibition.

The Indiana National Guard’s Company D (Ranger), 151st Infantry — one of the most decorated infantry companies of the Vietnam War — will receive the Presidential Unit Citation at the 148th General Conference & Exhibition, Aug. 28-31 in Indianapolis.

Drawing on nearly four centuries of service and the National Guard’s ongoing operational tempo, the Guard Bureau’s senior leaders last week urged the enlisted force to sustain the Guard’s edge.

One of the two District of Columbia Air National Guard fighter pilots sent on a potential suicide mission the morning of 9/11 will share that experience at the 148th General Conference & Exhibition in Indianapolis, Aug. 28-31.