WASHINGTON, March 12 (UPI) -- A senior-level Pentagon working group will review the Commission on the National Guards and Reserves' reform proposals.
The working group will examine the potential impact of the recommendations made two weeks by the commission on the way U.S. military reserves are led, organized, funded and employed. The group will also suggest changes to the current policies and law, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said according to an Air Force News report on Friday.
Whitman said Thomas Hall, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, would lead the group, which would include senior U.S. Department of Defense officials and civilian leaders.
The group will present its findings to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in April.
The commission presented its second annual report to the U.S. Congress on March 1. The assessment consisted of 23 broad-ranging recommendations to ensure the United States gets an operational reserve. The commission said the nation currently lacked one.
The commission said a reservist should be assigned as commander or deputy commander of the Northern Command, which is tasked with U.S. federal homeland defense and civil support activities. It also recommended that the National Guard Bureau be a joint activity with the DOD, and that the chief of that bureau be a four-star general and senior advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"Reconstituting and resetting the Guard and Reserve ... is the top priority for the Department of Defense," Gates said last week in response to the commission's report. He promised to make the policy changes where possible.
"For those recommendations that require legislation, I will forward a proposal to the Congress this year," Whitman quoted Gates as saying. "Whatever the changes, it is important that we sustain the 'total force' concept."
