ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Military officials announced last week that Alaska’s Air National Guard will be indefinitely exempt from staffing changes that local leaders said would have devastated the force‘s core operations.
For months, Alaska’s congressional delegation has been aggressively lobbying the National Guard Bureau to postpone or scrap an initiative known as “Fulltime Leveling,” which would have reclassified the job categories for about 80 members of the state’s Air National Guard beginning on Oct. 1.
“In numerous meetings, calls and letters, the Alaska congressional delegation strongly pressed Guard leaders to exempt Alaska from the planned cuts, highlighting the many unique missions of the Alaska (Air National Guard) that are critically important to U.S. homeland defense, including missile warning, aerial refueling, and combat rescue,” said a statement released by all three members the delegation.
The original directive, announced at the start of the year, is intended to more equitably staff all 54 of the country’s National Guard units. At its core, the initiative adjusts how states are allotted two different categories of full-time employees. On one side are Active Guard Reserve, or AGR, positions, which are equivalent to active duty airmen or soldiers in the regular military, and can be deployed for both state and federal missions, be it a natural disaster or a national security threat. Alaska has a higher share of such…
