WASHINGTON, March 22 (UPI) -- A prominent Democratic senator Wednesday vetoed a U.S. Air Force plan to reform the Air National Guard.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. co-chairman of the National Guard Caucus in the U.S. Senate, took the action, the Air Force Times reported.
USAF Chief of Staff T. Michael Moseley had presented the plan to the Commission on the National Guard and Reserve in a March 15 letter, the newspaper said. According to the Moseley plan, every U.S. state should have two separate adjutant generals, one for the Air Guard and one for Army Guard, the paper said.
However, Leahy told Moseley during a hearing the Senate's Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Wednesday that he was going to sit on the plan.
"None of these proposals will go anywhere up here," the senator said, according to the Ar Force Times report.
Leahy complained that the Moseley plan would make the Air National Guard too much like the Air Force Reserve, which is directly controlled by the Air Force chief of staff. In contrast, the Air National Guard is controlled by local state governors and the National Guard Bureau, the report said.
However, the newspaper noted that in practical terms, Air National Guard members serving on operations such as those in the Iraq theater closely cooperated with the regular Air Force and Air Force Reserve.
Moseley defended his plan by saying that the closer integration it envisaged would give Air National Guard officers more chances for promotion and advancement.
