A National Guard Armored Brigade Combat Team is leading the way in Syria?

.@USArmy troops in 4-118th Infantry Regiment, @30thabct, @NCNationalGuard attached to the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, @SCNationalGuard, load M2A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles to support the @CJTFOIR mission in Deir ez Zor, Syria. #DefeatDaesh pic.twitter.com/ZbFsvIemRW

— OIR Spokesman Col. Myles B. Caggins III (@OIRSpox) October 31, 2019

Well that concept has become a reality.

I never actually thought we'd see the day that National Guard forces would deploy ahead of active duty troops but we're seeing it all too often now.

We must ask why (IMO).

Yeah.  I'm cynical as hell and quite honestly thinking that its EXTREMELY misguided.

From my seat it has its roots to the earlier fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Units were rotating in and out and because of the size of our force you saw "repeat" rotations.

The solution from the head shed?

Spread the pain.

Fully integrate the National Guard/Reserves into the effort and while the ops tempo was high, the individual unit/Soldier wouldn't feel it as much.

Good on the surface, terrible in the way it's been implemented.

No one talks about it and I can't prove it but despite drawdowns the strain on our troops remains high.  The ops tempo continue to ramp upward.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm sure this is a capable unit and they will perform well. But at the end of the day we have people that are training everyday to perform the mission and they're sitting on the sidelines while part time Soldiers are headed off to do some very heavy lifting.

I might be wrong but it strikes me as being more than slightly off.