CAMP SHELBY, Miss.–The folks with the Mississippi Army National Guard are short anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 people and they want you to know about it.
“We look at personnel readiness and equipment readiness and they go hand in hand, and our personnel readiness is not where it needs to be now,” said Major Gen. Bobby Ginn, who has been in the Guard for 35 years and is now the Adjutant General, basically the commander of Mississippi;s Guard.
“When you get that personnel strength where it needs to be, at 100 percent, then all of your equipment readiness, it goes hand in hand. If you take care of people and you take care of equipment within an organization, the rest of it is going to take care of itself,” he said.
Thursday the Guard took a group of reporters on a trip to Camp Shelby for a free sample of what it’s like to be in the Guard. That included a chopper ride on a Chinook to Camp Shelby, then having the reporters lay prone to fire electronic AR’s on an electronic range, the same one on which soldiers must attempt to qualify before actually going to the physical firing range.
The reporters then rode in $18 million tanks that went 65 mph. Earplugs were required for that and almost every activity. The equipment is both loud and powerful.
Ginn said it was more than just equipment and blowing things up that attracted him to the Guard.
“I was one of those young men that was looking for a team when I couldn’t be part of a team anymore athletically,” he said. Ginn added that his father was an inspiration, having fought in World War II.
When asked what it is that is keeping people from signing up, he said it may be what seems like excessive deployments following the years immediately after 9/11, but also people retiring and younger people not wanting to step up for a military experience.
He said the Guard and advocates plan to go to the state legislature to suggest incentives that have worked in other states, including reduced car tags for members of the Guard and also reduced state taxes.
