There have been exchange programs between active-duty and Guard Airmen, mostly involving pilots, but nothing to this extent. That is, until Brig. Gen. William Etter, Vermont ANG assistant adjutant general for air, and his staff came up with the idea and presented it to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, who blessed it as a test in November 2004. By the summer of 2005, the first active-duty Airmen began arriving.
“This is another logical step during a time when we want the most capabilities with a restrained budget,” said Maj. Gen. Martha Rainville, who in 1997 became the first woman adjutant general in the 260-year history of the National Guard. “We’re leveraging Guard experience with the enthusiasm of our young Airmen. It will be good for the Guard, the Air Force and the nation.”
The young active-duty Airmen are also changing the way the Green Mountain Boys think and operate, affecting a unit that has been around since 1946.
The ANG, as a whole, has never had a First Term Airmen’s Center until the Vermont unit thought to create one before their newest members arrived. It proved to be such a success it’s being incorporated around the nation.
From concept, planning, to execution, the Vermont ANG is a stickler for doing it right the first time, leaving nothing to chance. They say other Guard units should be able to look at the model they’ve built.
“ We seek the advice of experts in everything we do,” said Col. Steve Cray, Vermont ANG director of strategic plans and force development. “There is nothing ad hoc.”
The Guard supervisors also have to learn the career development side of the active-duty force, which “is making us a better Guard unit, no doubt about it,” the colonel said.
Even the Airmen themselves are making a change. They’ve formed an Airman’s Council — again, something new for the Vermont ANG — and have dreams of growing.
“We want to expand it and make it a Junior Enlisted Association so we can include more E-5s and below from the Guard,” said Senior Airman Richard Taylor, the council’s principal organizer.
The test has yet to come
The Green Mountain Boys, including all of their newest members, will deploy this spring in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom — the ultimate test for community basing.
“I predict success,” said 1st Lt. Adrian Meyer, the detachment commander. “It’s what they’ve been practicing to do since the active-duty Airmen started showing up. In this first (deployment), they’re all fired up.”
Col. Phil Murdock, 158th Fighter Wing commander, said, “Once they’ve deployed with us, it will solidify the team concept. The goal here is to complement each other.”
Program success
Less than a year into the program and many of the Green Mountain Boys are already calling community basing a success.
If the community basing concept catches hold, as many predict, it will open up more assignment possibilities for active-duty Airmen to states that traditionally don’t have active-duty Air Force bases.
States with only Guard and Reserve bases, not active duty, include Oregon, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Vermont.
“When our seasoned veterans heard the new Airmen were coming, they jumped in with all four paws on the ground,” said Col. Michael Morgan, the unit’s maintenance commander. “There was no resistance. They’ve really taken them under their wing. Because most of our members are in their mid-40s and 50s, it’s like (the young Airmen) are working with aunts, uncles and a few long-lost cousins.”
That feeling is not lost on Airman LaCroix.
“I consider myself a Green Mountain Boy,” Airman LaCroix said. “It means being part of a family where they accept me and I accept them. Actually, that part came real easy.”
For the first-term enlisted participants in community basing, the experience is entirely new. For active-duty Airmen with past Air Force experience, they must get accustomed to living without base support functions. For the Guard, its goal is not to change tried-and-true ways, but to adapt to better accommodate their active-duty counterparts.
Success is achieved when everyone involved complements each other. And, according to all involved, that is already happening.
