Does the Guard need to be eady at a moments notice?
Using them as Strategic Reserve means having 90 days to do a work up.
Guard guys/gals also need to aknowldge that their leadership failed them when OIF/OEF were in full effect.
You make a valid point, but I don't think the Aug. 2001 Guard was even "90 days out" to be honest. Some units maybe, but some weren't. Hell, there were AD units unprepared for Iraq and they had a bit of lead time to prepare.
Guard SF for example: The SIGDET's for both Groups operated museums...our equipment was 2-3 generations behind AD. Guys in my old unit told me point blank that it took a deployment under 3rd Group as a meat market, an MTOE change, and a massive infusion of equipment and training opportunities to be ready for Iraq in 2005. That was the SIGDET, but it makes me wonder how ready the rest of the BN was....and I don't think the ODA's were ready. The SOT-A's never saw their equipment and could barely field one completely trained SOT-A.
I don't think the majority of the Guard was a 90-day trainup from much of anything. Some units acquitted themselves well, some didn't. I know of at least two BNs in FL that deployed ONCE and that was...08-09.
The Guard doesn't need to be ready to invade a country, but the state of many Army Guard units in Aug. 2001 was bad. MOSQ was low, we couldn't obtain schools for reclassifying soldiers, some units qualified on a 25m range with those pseudo targets, equipment was old if we had equipment...3/20's HMMWV's were hand-me-downs from AD. One was rebuilt after cratering in with the 82nd and then sent to us. This is just money, none of this addresses some of the chronic leadership issues at the unit level.