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Story Courtesy Army Times Publishing Co.

This unique arrangement is to support security for the meeting, and defense officials say it could set a precedent as the Pentagon considers the military’s role in homeland defense.

Brig. Gen. Terry Nesbitt of the Georgia Army National Guard is set to oversee Joint Task Force G-8, more than 5,000 active-duty and Guard troops mobilizing for the meeting near Savannah, Ga., of the leaders of the world’s major industrialized nations.

Unusual command arrangement

Lt. Gen. Steve Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, called the unusual command arrangement “unprecedented.”

National Guard personnel operate in one of three conditions, and in only one at a time: for a state governor; for the Defense Department under Title 10 when called to active duty; or for the state governor under Title 32 when the federal government foots the bill.

National Guardsmen operating under Title 32, where allegiance is to their state governor, are not supposed to command troops operating under Title 10, whose allegiance is to the federal government.

Congress made a narrow exception in the 2004 Defense Authorization Act to permit a National Guard officer to command a blend of active-duty and National Guard personnel in the 116th Air Control Wing, which operates the Air Forces Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar Systems (Joint STARS).

This unit, based at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., is the first to activate under the Air Force’s Future Total Force concept, which will eventually combine all active and reserve components.

However, the Georgia unit has yet to implement the new legal authority to put a Guardsman in charge of active-duty troops.

Officials planning security for the Georgia meeting of heads of state from Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States thought this command arrangement recently approved by Congress might be useful to replicate.

“In the discussions about the G-8 summit security mission, it became apparent to a number of people that [putting a guardsman in charge of active-duty units] was a good construct for just this kind of event-driven task force,” said Air National Guard Maj. Gen. David Poythress, Georgia’s adjutant general.

He said the concept makes sense because the Guard commander “is already on the ground and knows the local sheriff and knows the local fire chief and we, the Guard, have been planning with these people for months ... and we all know each other very well.”

At the behest of Poythress and U.S. Northern Command chief Air Force Gen. Ralph Eberhart, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue on April 16 asked President Bush to place a National Guardsman in a dual-hatted role — overseeing both Title 32 and Title 10 troops.

Bush determined the G-8 summit to be an international special-security mission, more than just a state mission, and granted the request, which Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is carrying out.

Nesbitt will be “honoring the authorities and prerogatives of the governor, allowing Defense Department personnel and equipment to remain under the command and control of the governor, yet paid for by the federal government,” Blum said.

Joint Task Force G-8 will include Georgia Air and Army National guardsmen, a number of active-duty units and elements of the Coast Guard, which operate under Title 14. Active-duty troops include specialized elements such as ordnance disposal units and dog units. Some Guardsmen from other states will operate under Title 32 and others under Title 10.

In addition to the military, Georgia plans to provide 5,000 state law-enforcement personnel. The number of federal law-enforcement personnel is expected to be as high as 10,000.

Nesbitt has met with all the active-duty and National Guard commanders who will serve under him.

“We think it’s worked out pretty well,” Poythress said.

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