Utah County needs to reconsider its proposal to end the practice of paying National Guard and reservists regular wages during their annual leave for summer camp. And then the county needs to abandon it.
Instead, it should adhere to the philosophy expressed by Felix McGowan, Salt Lake County personnel director:"It's a longtime policy. It goes way back, out of a desire to recognize that we need to keep trained military personnel ready for an emergency. It's just one of those things we need to do."
Indeed it is. Take the floods of 1982, for example, to illustrate the wisdom in that policy. The National Guard provided much-needed manpower and heavy equipment along the Wasatch Front to help bring the floods under control.
In 1990 and '91 a number of Utah National Guard units were called up to participate in Desert Storm. They not only represented Utah but their country, many at a significant financial sacrifice. The tours, some lasting many months, were hardly a two-week summer camp. The citizens of every community benefited from their dedication.
The National Guard and reserves are important and vital components of the nation's military structure. To discourage participation in those units -- which failure to at least make up the wage difference between Guard pay and regular employee pay for the two-week period would surely do -- is not in the best interests of the county, state or nation. Whatever short-term gains are realized would soon be replaced by long-term headaches.
To claim, as Utah County is, that whatever money it spends on training must be returned in a tangible form by individual or collective Guard activities that same year, shows a lack of knowledge of what the military is about.
In a sense it's like saying to get a return on the billions of dollars the nation spends each year on high-tech and nuclear weapons, those weapons would have to be used that same year.
There may not be a crisis for 10 years, but there may be three in the 11th year. Whenever they occur, there needs to be a strong military force both locally and nationally to deal with them. That local force is primarily the Guard and reserves.
The current policy for Utah County has been meeting the needs of both the county and those in the Guard and reserves. It needs to stay in place.