More Room for Changes

More opportunities are definitely out there to bring the Air National Guard and Air Force active duty components together, Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, head of the National Guard Bureau, said Tuesday. “The question is going to be do we have the will and the courage for the Guard to associate wherever it makes sense so that we can continue to have people in the most modern and new equipment,” he said during a meeting with defense writers in Washington, D.C. Despite the challenges that have come with Total Force Integration, McKinley said he hasn’t seen “any complete failures in integration” to date. Some have been “dramatically successful,” while others have been “partially successful,” he noted. Accordingly, he’s encouraging the Air Guard leadership “to look for opportunities to blend, to get together, to associate” in cases “where it makes sense.”