National Guard to restructure; Nevada, Lamar forces renamed

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

Change is in the air for the Missouri National Guard -- a change that can be traced to before Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld pushed for a more mobile and responsive fighting force. The changes will help National Guard units become more modern and mirror existing active units.

During a press conference, the Missouri Army National Guard on Monday outlined its largest restructuring since World War II. The shuffling of duties and soldiers among the state's dozens of armories is part of the Pentagon's effort to remake the Guard for modern warfare, said Adj. Gen. King Sidwell.

The reassignment of duties will mean fewer Missouri soldiers in field artillery and engineering companies and more in military police units.

What that means for Nevada is a name change and a few more slots for personnel. Instead of being Company A of the 735th Support Battalion it will be FSC, 110th Brigade Support Battalion -- Nevada. The headquarters for the 110th BSB will be in Kansas City and the unit in Lamar will have essentially the same relationship to the Nevada as it currently does but it too gets a new name: Det 1, FSC, 110th BSB -- Lamar.

Sidwell said the reassignment of armory responsibilities is intended to concentrate various specialties geographically, so fewer soldiers have to travel across state.

Major Chris Mickan, 735th Battalion headquarters, said that all of the changes are intended to make National Guard units, wherever located, fit into the active duty services seamlessly.

"The military is changing to a faster responder," Mickan said. "The intent is to make it possible to take a unit on active duty out of rotation and put in a National Guard unit of the same type and plug it in without having to retrain all the personnel."

The number of authorized Army Guard positions will decline by 525 to 7,915 statewide. But current Army Guard membership already is below that, at 7,825 soldiers, Sidwell said.

As a result, however, some soldiers may have to learn new duties to remain based at their local armories, Sidwell said.

Since Nevada's unit is already deployed the changes will take place upon their return stateside.

"When they come back they'll fall into slots they qualify for in the new BSB," Mickan said. "They all have multiple MOS's (military occupational specialty) and can fit into where they're needed. If they don't happen to qualify for a slot there will be training available to help them qualify. If there are enough people needing training, they will even bring in a training school to the area."

No armories will close under the plan, but the number of soldiers reporting to each armory will change -- with some sites becoming responsible for more soldiers and others responsible for fewer guardsmen.

Associated Press Writer David A. Lieb contributed to this report.