24 October 2014 (15:59 UTC-07 Tango)/29 Dhu l-Hijja 1435/02 Aban 1393/01 Jia-Xu (9th month leap) 4712

“The Guard and Reserve are critical in order to ensure that the American people are linked-in to the operations that are being conducted. Operationally, we cannot execute sustained operations overseas unless we have the Guard and Reserve…….I have to get after this new mission set. We don’t know when we’ll have to deploy next.”-General Mark Milley, ForsCom (ForceS Command)

The U.S. Army has launched operation Bold Shift, which brings what was once a state controlled militia, the Army National Guard (ANG), under direct Regular Army (RA) control.  (the Army Reserve is already under direct control of the RA)

RA officials claim it will make training more efficient, supposedly saving money, but the goal is really about prepping the ANG for immediate deployment rather than spending months in pre-deployment training.

There will be an increase in Guard militiamen and women training at the Army’s National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California, or the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) at Fort Polk, Louisiana.

RA units will be permanently paired with ANG units.

Recently Idaho’s Orchard Training Area (OTA) was the site of a return to ‘Total Force’ combat training.

This can only mean that the U.S. Department of Defense believes that there are even bigger wars to come.