Costs up for NG Training Overhaul

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Costs up for NG Training Overhaul
August 19, 2008
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Revamping the Army National Guard training program so Soldiers can spend more time at home will cost at least $128 million this year, and officials say they need nearly double that amount next year to properly train and equip their forces, The Associated Press has learned.

After struggling for more than a year and a half to condense the training process, Guard leaders have managed to chop months off the time citizen Soldiers must spend away from their jobs and families due to deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Until early 2007, Guard combat brigades were training for up to six months - much of it away from home - and then would spend 12 months to 15 months in the war zone. The average time has been slashed to a bit more than 13 months, including about a month of training at home, another 40 to 70 days at the formal Army training center and roughly 10 months on the battlefront.

Spurred on by the Pentagon's promise that Guard deployments would be limited to one year, military leaders pledged to spread some of the required pre-deployment war preparation into the Soldiers' routine weekend and weeklong training exercises each year.

That would allow Soldiers to train, get required medical tests and do some paperwork while at home for much of the 12 months prior to heading to one of 10 mobilization centers for their final prewar training and equipment.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/costs-up-for-ng-training-overhaul.html?col=1186032310810