Will the Guard be less busy in 2022?

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Infantryman of the 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 194th Armor Regiment, prepare to begin clearing buildings during an early morning mission to gain control of the occupied city of Razish during a decisive-action training exercise in the desert environment of the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California, on July 25, 2020. Soldiers loaded into Bradley Fighting Vehicles early in the morning to reach their objective before sunrise in an effort to surprise the opposing force known as Blackhorse. Blackhorse Soldiers of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment-Blackhorse, are dedicated to testing units in “The Box.” Brigade Soldiers are taking part in one of the U.S. Army’s most challenging land force training exercises and have prepared for entering “The Box” for over a year, including during their 2019 annual training at Fort Hood, Texas, where they completed an eXportable Combat Training Center exercise. The 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 194th Armor Regiment, is a Minnesota Army National Guard battalion headquartered in Brainerd. The overall unit mission is to provide heavy armor and mechanized infantry ground combat power to the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Sebastian Nemec)

The past two years have been extremely busy for the National Guard — and that’s an understatement.

In 2020, a combination of natural disasters, civil disturbances, election support, COVID-19 pandemic response and federal deployments saw the National Guard used more and for longer than any time period since World War II.

Then 2021 kicked off with 26,000 Guard troops standing watch in Washington, D.C., in response to the Jan. 6 insurrection. Tens of thousands more Guard troops participated in overseas operations, wildfire response, pandemic response and other state missions.

Troops from the Minnesota National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 194th Armor Regiment, also played a pivotal role in securing the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the chaotic evacuation there in August.

And it looks like the Guard will stay busy into 2022.

As of Dec. 13, 2021, approximately 28,690 Guard troops are deployed overseas, and an additional 16,650 are activated for domestic missions, said NGB spokesperson Wayne Hall. The latter count does not include the thousands of Guard troops currently activated under state authority or troops at the southern border on Title 10 orders, Hall added.

President Joe Biden extended the Title 32 authorization allowing Guard troops to continue on pandemic response with funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency through at least April 1.

Guard troops will also remain stationed along the U.S.-Mexico border throughout 2021.

Up to 3,000 will be there through at least Sept. 31 as part of a Pentagon-directed mission to support Customs and Border Protection, and thousands more are currently activated under state authority in Texas for “Operation Lone Star.” It’s not clear exactly how many Texas troops are activated, nor how long their mission will last.

It also appears that the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season, a primary source of state missions, will have an above average amount of storms, according to researchers from Colorado State University.

Senior Army leaders have also said that the end of the war in Afghanistan won’t slow down the pace of overseas deployments. National Guard troops remained deployed to the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

About 

Davis Winkie covers the Army for Military Times. He studied history at Vanderbilt and UNC-Chapel Hill, and served five years in the Army Guard. His investigations earned the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2023 Sunshine Award and consecutive Military Reporters and Editors honors, among others. Davis was also a 2022 Livingston Awards finalist.