SGAUS

State Guard Association of the United States

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Service and Sacrifice: Citizen Soldier Volunteer

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Introducing the promotional videos from the New York Guard, Ohio Military Reserve, Puerto Rico Air State Guard, South Carolina State Guard, Tennessee State Guard, and the Washington State Guard.  These videos applies to all State Defense Forces nationwide.  Service, Sacrifice – Citizen Soldier Volunteer.  When we are needed … we will be there!

Click here to view video:

New York Guard

Ohio Military Reserve

Puerto Rico Air State Guard

South Carolina State Guard

Tennessee State Guard

Washington State Guard

Importance of State Defense Forces

State Guard Association of the United States

SGAUS Military Emergency Management Specialist Program

If your State has a video, please send to kenneth.takasaki@sgaus.org

Adequate Disaster Response and Advancement of Public Health:

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Acute public health problems, emergencies, and recent disasters have highlighted weaknesses in the general capabilities of non-uniformed civilian volunteers in the United States.  Their lack of uniformity, organization, and chains of command limits their efficiency and usefulness, especially in light of new emergent crises of the post-Cold War.  Indeed, the uncoordinated, undisciplined, and spontaneous convergence of medical volunteers is part of the problem.  Sufficient and reliable, well-trained , and highly disciplined uniformed volunteer medical personnel familiar with the areas of operations are needed to augment full-time public health and medical personnel. State Defense Force (SDF) medical units can provide just such a volunteer paramilitary medical and public health resource.  To show how SDFs can do this, the purpose of this article was to report on the work of an important, yet little known, force for public health and emergency/disaster response preparedness that has been “flying under the radar” for years in terms of the public health literature.  Specifically, this article describes the Texas State Guard (an SDF) and its Operation Lone Star. In so doing, the article will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of SDFs, offer recommendations, and suggest future avenues for research inquiry.

For the article by LTC Raph J. Johnson III, U.S. Army Reserve, 1st BDE, 1 Southern Training Division, 75th Training Command … Article

SGAUS PME Academy

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PME

SGAUS PME Academy Update!

The SGAUS PME Academy is in full swing! The Academy continues to provide online Professional Military Education (PME) services to State Defense Forces (SDF’s) across the nation.  As of 21 April 2017, there are 594 students who have completed or are actively enrolled in online courses. Since the end of March in 2016, the PME Academy has awarded 482 course completion certificates.  Requests for enrollment are coming in on a daily basis. Once requests come in, students are set up and enrolled within two business days, max! We work very closely with the approved SDF’s PME coordinators to ensure each student’s effort and course work data is in the hands of the SDF training departments.

We would like to remind Commander’s to appoint state Training Officers and to identify Subject Mater Experts who are willing to become part of the PME Academy curriculum development teams. Upcoming projects will include developing a senior officer training course and developing course Programs of Instruction that allow organization with existing curriculum to integrate their curriculum using a resident and non-resident phases.  The resident phase would allow the organization to customize the training to fit their organization and the non-resident phase could be built largely of SGAUS PME online Courses.  This process would allow units to greatly increase their annual training hours with minimal expenditure of training resources.

The SGAUS online Academy also hosts the JAG Academy and their 10-module “Practicing Military Law” course available to SDF attorneys nationally, after approval by the JAG Academy Committee. The JAG Academy has awarded 35 certificates of course completion since its inception last Fall.

We are starting to see more military education standardization arise by the commonality the PME Academy and JAG courses across the various SDF’s. In addition to the JAG course, the current suite includes 12 PME courses:

Preventing Sexual Harassment (annual mandatory course in some SDF’s)

Officer Basic Course (OBC)

Officer Advanced Course (OAC)

Command & Staff Course Phase 1 (CAS1)

Command & Staff Course Phase 2 (CAS2)

Warrant Officer Basic Course (WOBC)

Warrant Officer Advanced Course (WOAC)

Warrant Officer Staff Course (WOSC)

Primary (Warrior) Leader Course (PLC)

Senior Leader Course (SLC)

Advanced Leader Course (ALC)

Command Sergeant Major Course (CSM)

Some SDF’s are now requiring their students to go through the online PME Academy courses before the in-residence academies in their states. They are discovering that this approach exposes the students, especially non-priors, to the instruction before the classroom experience which makes the discussion in class more focused and richer and the retention of instruction higher due to the repetition.

Some SDF’s are also requiring non-prior recruits to sign-up and enroll in courses as part of their recruitment/onboarding processes. The same goes for specific courses being required for promotions.

So, if your state is interested in participating, the SDF Commander needs to contact the SGAUS Executive Director, BG (TN-R) Kenneth Takasaki at:

kenneth.takasaki@sgaus.org

BG Takasaki will brief the SDF Commander on the program and the onboarding process. Each state has the flexibility to merge the services of the Academy into their PME process.

I also need to remind everyone that the instructional content of the PME Academy is a living entity. The current suite of courses is not static. We anticipate more courses being added in the future and existing courses being refined for more effectiveness of instruction. The SGAUS Education Committee Chair is COL James Hardy. Please make any suggestions for changes, improvements and new courses to him at:

James.Hardy2@fema.dhs.gov

If you have technical questions, don’t hesitate to contact me at:

Chago.santiago@sgaus.org

 

Thank you.

 

CHAGO SANTIAGO, COL (TN)                                                     JAMES J. HARDY, COL (NY)

Chief Technology Officer                                                                Chair, SGAUS PME Academy

SGAUS                                                                                                  SGAUS

 

Georgia State Defense Force Chaplain Candidate Handbook

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Chaplain candidacy in the Georgia State Defense Force offers a tremendous opportunity to serve both God as well as soldiers and their families. A newly designed and developed Chaplain Candidate Handbook is intended to help candidates adjust to this new responsibility and provide some basic information pertaining to their role as a Chaplain Candidate. It is not intended to be an exhaustive manual, but rather a springboard to lead the candidate into further exploration of the call as a Chaplain and a GASDF officer.

It also serves current Chaplains as a professional development tool for mentoring Chaplain Candidates and junior Chaplains. As always, it should be augmented with current applicable Army/GASDF doctrine, guidance, and instructions.

The Handbook covers who we are and what we do (Chapter 1); who we serve and how we fit in (Chapter 2); in-processing (Chapter 3); the unit ministry team (Chapter 4); becoming a chaplain (Chapter 5); uniforms and appearance (Annex A); basic standards, customs & courtesies (Annex B), recommended reading (Annex C), and Chaplain insignia (Annex D).

Our intent and hope in this endeavor is to further standardize and professionalize the GASDF Chaplain Corps in line with the Georgia Army National Guard Chaplain Corps (on whose material it is based). And we offer this, also, as a contribution that other State Guards and Defense Forces may use and build on in their service to their respective states and to the United States.

POC for more information is CH(CPT-GA) Bobby Haygood at bobby.haygood@gasdf.us

Click this link for the GASDF Chaplain Candidate Handbook.

ArmyChap1

Online Exchange Shopping Open to Vets

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More than 67,000 veterans have applied to shop on the military exchange store websites under a recently released benefit.

The benefit clears the way for honorably discharged veterans from any era to shop at the exchange stores online. In the past, the shopping benefit both online and at brick-and-mortar locations was limited primarily to active-duty troops; National Guardsmen, reservists and their dependents; and retirees and their dependents.

To signup, go to VetVerify.org web portal. That system allows veterans’ information to be verified with the Defense Department so they can be cleared to use the online exchange stores.

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Alaska State Defense Force Soldiers make history and deploy out of State.

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JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska –After their historical first-time activation for duty outside of Alaska, four Alaska State Defense Force Soldiers will return next week from a Puerto Rico deployment where they assisted with relief efforts in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. For more information … https://www.dvidshub.net/news/255803/alaska-state-defense-force-soldiers-make-history-and-deploy-out-state

Cyber Crime

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fbi

Federal Bureau of Investigation – Cyber Crime:

April 8, 2017, Supervisory Special Agent Scott E. Augenbaum was a guest lecturer at the JAG Conference in Nashville, TN.  SSA Augenbaum is the Cyber Crime Supervisor in the FBI Memphis Division and manages the program in Nashville and Memphis with a staff of seven Special Agents.  The FBI’s Cyber Program covers computer intrusion investigations, online child exploitation, intellectual property rights and Internet fraud.  His bio is at this link … SSA Augenbaum Bio.

His topic during the JAG conference was “Cybercrime and the Challenges of Protecting our Nation’s Information Technology Assets.”  SSA Augenbaum provided the following additional information to complement his lecture notes.  With his permission, these documents are provided … Documents.

Cybercrime prevention begins with you.  Please educate yourselves. For more information, SSA Augenbaum can be reached at scott.augenbaum@ic.fbi.gov

SSA Augenbaum has been invited to speak at the SGAUS Annual Conference and the JAG Conference in Myrtle Beach, SC, September 2017.  For more information, please contact CPT(TX) Michael Parker at  mrp@parkerllp.com or CPT(IN) Aravon McCalla at  aravon.mccalla@igr.in.gov; Co-Chairs, SGAUS JAG Committee.