AUGUST 6, 2026 — Drawing on nearly four centuries of service and the National Guard’s ongoing operational tempo, the National Guard Bureau’s senior leaders on Sunday urged the enlisted force to sustain the Guard’s edge.
Speaking at the 55th annual conference of the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States, Air Force Gen. Steve Nordhaus, chief of the National Guard Bureau, and Senior Enlisted Advisor John Raines, senior enlisted advisor to the CNGB, emphasized the Guard’s dual role as an operational force — at home and abroad.
“You might not think that you’ll be the one who gets that call on any given day,” Raines said. “But the truth of our operational reality is that we generally have more than 40,000 of our National Guard men and women deployed abroad or serving right here in the homeland. You have to stay ready.”
Over the past year, National Guardsmen responded to wildfires, floods and winter storms Fern and Gianna, while continuing efforts to secure the southern border and supporting law enforcement operations in American cities. Last month, thousands of Guard troops assisted with celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of American independence.
The leaders also highlighted the Guard’s role in recent combat operations. Nordhaus recapped the Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing’s rapid transition from one named operation to another.
“In January, the 158th was called upon for a highly complex, no-fail mission in South America: Operation Absolute Resolve,” Nordhaus said.
Absolute Resolve involved more than 150 aircraft launching from across the Western Hemisphere to enable a precise and surprise interdiction force into downtown Caracas, Venezuela.
Instead of returning home, those same Vermont Guardsmen immediately redeployed to the Middle East as part of Operation Epic Fury to support high-tempo strategic strikes to neutralize imminent security threats and permanently degrade Iran’s power-projection capabilities.
“But it’s not just Vermont,” Nordhaus said. “It was our tankers, it was our planners, it was our targeteers, it was the folks that worked out in the operations centers, it was our maintainers. All the best of the best called in to make it happen.”
The Air National Guard orchestrated the largest and fastest deployment in its history — activating more than 6,500 Guardsmen in just 15 days and delivering combat-ready forces from 40 wings into the U.S. Central Command theater in a record eight days.
While the Air Guard facilitated this massive strategic movement and executed ensuing missions, the Army Guard also made critical contributions.
“We already had a steady presence in the CENTCOM theater before Epic Fury – 80% of the forces there were National Guard units doing steady-state operations, security cooperation with partner nations and exercises,” Raines said.
“And then, combat operations kicked off.”
He detailed the Army Guard’s accomplishments during Epic Fury. The New York Guard’s 42nd Infantry Division and the Texas Guard’s 36th Infantry Division executed the longest relief-in-place operation on record, adapting to extended orders and shifting deployment locations.
Additional Army Guard units were decisively engaged in support of Joint Force partners. These historic combat achievements serve as a direct reflection of the National Guard’s broader strategic value to the Joint Force.
Nordhaus and Raines reiterated their priorities for the National Guard: warfighters and families, readiness, modernization and partnerships. They tied those priorities to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s focus on restoring the warrior ethos, reestablishing deterrence and rebuilding the military through lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards and readiness.
“Who are the standard bearers who are going to uphold discipline, standards and individual readiness?” Raines asked. “It’s us, in this room, the enlisted force, the NCOs. That’s our job, NCOs. You are the solution to every problem we face. You have to drive discipline and accountability. You have to drive readiness. If you get confused: standards and accountability–go to those and you can’t go wrong.”
The leaders praised the Guard’s ability to operate simultaneously in the homeland and warfight, while sustaining partnerships with local, state and federal agencies, as well as 116 partner nations worldwide in the Department of War National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program.
“Our enlisted corps is the envy of the world,” Nordhaus said. “Because we’re in over 2,500 communities, when something happens, your National Guard is Always Ready, Always There.”
By Master Sgt. Sarah McClanahan and Master Sgt. Zach Sheely