Top Officers Want National Guard and Reserve Forces Modernized

Members of the Texas Army National Guard extend razor wire to hold back migrants trying to cross the U.S. border, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on May 13, 2023. Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters

Not long ago, the active-duty military derided National Guard and Reserve units as “weekend warriors.” But, as the Pentagon relies more heavily on citizen soldiers, the chiefs of each military branch’s guard and reserve components are calling for modernization of equipment, training, and increased benefits.

“It’s a matter of readiness,” Gen. Daniel Hokanson, Chief of the National Guard Bureau, told the Defense Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee on June 1.