Personnel

The Department of War is giving service members who involuntarily separated for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine another year to apply for reinstatement.

The association president told lawmakers last week about the inequities National Guard Soldiers and Airmen too often face due to an obsolete duty-status system.

President Donald Trump nominated the adjutant general of Texas to be the new director of the Air National Guard. If confirmed by the Senate, Air Force Maj. Gen. Thomas M. Suelzer would receive a third star and take responsibility for formulating, developing and coordinating all federal policies, plans and programs related to the Air Guard nationwide.

NGAUS has been busy since the federal government shutdown began Oct. 1 informing Congress and the press on the harm the lapse in appropriations is doing to National Guard readiness and Guard Soldiers and Airmen and their families.

Military retirees and veterans on disability will receive the same 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment in 2026 that federal officials announced Friday for Social Security recipients.

The continuing government shutdown is uniquely hard on the Soldiers and Airmen of the National Guard. We have thousands of full-time Guardsmen nationwide who wear their uniform and rank every workday but, unlike their active-duty brothers and sisters, they have yet to be paid in October.

The National Guard Bureau today operates with two of its four senior positions filled by leaders in an “acting” capacity with less than the correct rank. In fact, NGB has not had all four posts filled by Senate-confirmed officers of the appropriate rank in 16 months.

President Donald Trump said Saturday that active-duty service members would get paid today, despite the government shutdown that is now in its third week.

NGAUS and three other National Guard and Reserve advocacy groups have made another urgent appeal to congressional leaders to end the government shutdown or at least take action to pay troops on duty during the impasse.

NGAUS is leading the charge of National Guard and Reserve associations asking Congress to help pay service members on duty during the government shutdown, which is now in its second week.

Since Congress failed to pass normal appropriations or a stopgap budget before the start of the fiscal year on Tuesday, the federal government is officially shut down.

Physical fitness and combat training standards will be raised and scrutinized, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Tuesday told hundreds of generals, admirals and senior enlisted personnel from across the services and components.