Photo by Sgt. Roy Henry Georgia Army National Guard Pfc. Cassandra Prescott, a military police officer with the 48th Brigade Combat Team, radios for instructions while guarding the entrance to a compound where troops are being housed near Brunswick, Ga., for the G8 Summit.

By Master Sgt. Bob Haskell
National Guard Bureau

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. - This is what Terry Nesbitt would have been doing if he were a major league baseball manager. He'd have been managing the New York Yankees and the New York Mets at the same time and for the first time – during the World Series.

It was not baseball, but Georgia Army National Guard Brig. Gen. Terry Nesbitt managed, or commanded, two large teams at the same time during a very public international event on coastal Georgia during the first half of June.

It was the Group of Eight, or G8, Sea Island Summit for the leaders of the world's major industrial countries. And the world was watching. A reported 3,000 journalists from around the globe covered the June 8-10 event. The world, it was said, converged on Georgia.

FULL STORY

Photo by Maj. Mark Brian LTG Blum illustrates a transformation topic, while Lt. Gen. Daniel James, director of the Air National Guard, explains the issue at hand.

ARLINGTON, Va. - It was a year ago in May when LTG H Steven Blum announced his plan to transform the National Guard into a more ready, reliable, essential and accessible force to help defend this country – at home and abroad.

Blum had been chief of the National Guard Bureau for little more than a month when he told Guard leaders in the 54 states and territories, the entire National Guard family, and the national media his concept for moving the 460,000 members of the Guard into the 21st century.

He calls it The Way Ahead. He calls it doing what is right for America.

In a nutshell, Blum has insisted during his first year on the job, the Guard has to change from a strategic reserve that was standing by during the Cold War to help this country fight Warsaw Pact forces attacking Western Europe through the Fulda Gap into an operational force that is already actively engaged in the global war against terrorism in this country and overseas, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

FULL STORY