Commanders Briefing Episode 4
Brigadier General Gregory Juday of the Maryland Defense Force
Transcript:
This is a rough transcript of the episode. We are in the process of smoothing out the wording. Please excuse any errors.
Jean Marciniak: (00:09)
Welcome to commanders briefing a podcast where we talk about state defense forces with their commanding officers. This month we have on the show, Brgadier General, Juday commanding general of the Maryland defense force. We also like to apologize for the dips and sound quality throughout the interview. As cell phone service kind of interrupted our interview a few times before we begin the podcast, we’d like to thank our Paton supporters who make programs like this possible. If you want to help support the podcast and state defense force.com, please click the pat link in the description. Also Paton supporters get the raw uncut and behind the scenes interview. Now on the show, welcome everyone to commanders briefing. I’m John, um, Marcin, the host of the show. And I have with me today, um, the major general, the commanding general of the Maryland defense force, Major general Greg Juday is, am I saying that that right?
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (01:03)
I’m a Brigadier general.
Jean Marciniak: (01:06)
Oh my apologies. Well, I was always told it’s better to promote than demote.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (01:12)
There you go.
Jean Marciniak: (01:15)
Um, so I have tons of questions, uh, that I was going through and I, I know I sent them to you. Um, I know we’re not gonna cover of them all probably. Uh, but, um, I’m gonna try to pick out the really good ones. And then if we, uh, miss a few, I guess we could always have you back on the show to capture the ones that we miss.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (01:35)
All right. Not a problem.
Jean Marciniak: (01:36)
All right. Awesome. Uh, so, uh, before we begin, uh, can you tell us a little bit about you, your history, uh, in the, and, uh, life?
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (01:46)
Sure.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (01:47)
I, um, I grew up in Dayton, Ohio. I went to school in, uh, at Samford university in Birmingham, Alabama. I went there on a air force, ROTC scholarship and was commissioned after graduation into the, uh, air force. I was, uh, went into the technical career field. That was what my scholarship was for. And my studies, I spent 26 years in the air force. I retired in 2007 outta the Colonel. My specialty was in acquisitions and systems development. I worked on a lot of different weapons systems, worked with the users, the aviators to determine what capabilities they needed and the technology side tried to get those to merge. Um, but I also had other assignments, uh, one in arms control in Europe, and I did a lot of, uh, information technology com work also. And then those assignments I had the opportunity to be, um, in laboratories product centers I had was at the headquarters. I was at the Pentagon. Um, so I got to see really all the in different levels of work across the organization, which, which I think helps a lot in the, in the current role that I’m in.
Jean Marciniak: (03:06)
Yeah. That’s, uh, that’s amazing. Wow. Um, especially nowadays with technology being so critical, uh, especially in the, uh, military and, um, in the warfare sector now.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (03:18)
Yeah. It, it’s an interesting problem. You know, a, a system is technology plus processes plus people. And if you just add technology, a lot of times you don’t really just change the system and what’s going on. You just have a new technology that people use to do the same thing that used to do. So it really requires all process is, and the training that comes along with the technology to, to take full advantage of what the technology can, can bring to the game.
Jean Marciniak: (03:49)
Hmm. Interesting. Um, so next thing I want to kind of move over to the, uh, Maryland defense force. Uh, so, uh, what kind of missions is the, uh, uh, up to these days?
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (04:03)
Well, COVID, COVID, of course that’s kind of what we’re all doing, but we have a, we have a lot of standing missions that we still do. Um, here in Maryland, we have a very active engineering, uh, regiment. That’s really actually where I was before command the command in general. Uh, um, yes, we are charged, um, by the tag to inspect all of the army guard facilities for them, um, to meet their mandatory requirements. So we train to, uh, and we have a group of people that goes each of the installations, we inspect buildings, boilers parking, lot. We write up reports, we help size projects. Uh, we put all that into an annual report. We provide that to our, uh, to our tag, uh, through the Maryland military department that then they provide to the army, uh, to meet their requirements. The, the interesting thing about the, that role is weak.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (05:01)
Do that for us as a training, or if we ever responded to an, an emergency in the state of about how we would assess buildings, whether they were habitable or what damage they have in them. So we look at the FEMA standards as well, so that we’re really, it’s not just inspecting the guard buildings. It’s preparing for our real mission, which is responding to the state emergencies. We also have a very big cyber group here in Maryland. Um, they do a lot of training, um, and exercising with the, uh, the guard side unit. We also work with the state highway patrol and, and some counties to help them understand cyber and, and where they’re going with that. We are continuing that, that mission even during COVID. And, um, we have a, a very active band here in Ming, England. Um, and they have been traveling all over the state.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (06:04)
I, we really look at it as a morale community engagement. They’re, they’re amazing. I call them magicians, not musicians because when there’s 15 of them playing, it sounds like there’s deep. They are, they are awesome group of people that give a lot of their time and their skills, uh, to serve the state. We also have a big push here for free state challenge. I don’t know if you or your listeners are aware of that. It it’s a, it’s a guard national guard, bureau, state, um, project where we look at at risk, um, kids who maybe got the short end of the stick, or for some reason had some issues growing up. And this is an opportunity for them to come into a, a military environment, uh, to, to get their high school diploma, to get some in and mentoring and hopefully, you know, get, get onto a good track for the rest of their life.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (07:03)
We in Maryland, uh, when this started back, I think it was in the eighties. I’d have to look that up, but it was about in that timeframe, there were 10 states that were part of the original Maryland was part of that original group. So we do a lot of work with free state. We volunteer our time up there. Uh, we help in process. Those people help with graduation. Our engineers help, uh, maintain their building, uh, which is a little different role for us, but it, but it’s a good opportunity for us to serve, uh, the people that are serving the citizens of Maryland. We also have, uh, a chaplain core. That’s very active with our guard units and they can, are continuing to do that. They, uh, there aren’t enough chaplains for the units that are around some of the chaplains end up deployed or doing other missions. We actually have chaplains that go and run services, um, for the guard units, um, and participate in the, a field with them when we’re allowed to, um, just like you would see a chaplain in a, in a normal, uh, environment. And then aside from all that, we’re doing all the COVID missions, uh, we’re helping with testing, we’re helping with given vaccinations with training. Um, so we’re, we are, we are very active, um, in the state of Maryland, even, even through all this, uh, COVID time.
Jean Marciniak: (08:25)
I know that the Maryland defense force is known for, uh, I believe it’s the 10th, um, 10th medical regimen. Am I, uh, uh, stating that correctly? I, I know that, uh, that regimen is kind of, uh, revered for its history of, um, uh, which we’ll get to a little later about their, uh, historic deployments.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (08:48)
Yeah. 10th Matt, it’s really a, a, an innovative, uh, thing, Lieutenant Colonel green. Who’s our commander. There, we are also part of the Maryland, um, medical reserve Corps. Oh, so we’re kind, we’re down blind a little bit under the department of health. We have some opportunities that I know you didn’t ask, uh, who wasn’t in some of the things that we talked about earlier, but we also responded to, and there was a, a need for more medical people there. And we were able to, uh, bring in some of people who have volunteered, um, under the MRC, we call it here in Maryland medical reserve court, um, who weren’t part of the Maryland, uh, defense force. We brought them into airline defense force to bring ’em under our command and control our legal status, um, all those types of things. And we brought ’em in and, uh, we all went to Katrina together. So we actually got an innovation award this year for that, the way we work with our civilian side and our MRC, and we can extra hands and extra skills, um, as needed. And, and that’s really a great thing that our 10th medical regimen is doing for us.
Jean Marciniak: (10:06)
I remember that deployment. I remember posting news about it. Um, I remember you guys were assigned to a hospital, I believe in new Orleans.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (10:16)
That, that sounds right. Was it was a little before me. Um, but yes, it was a big medical mission. Um, and, and there was a lot of questions about how we could do it. Um, when, when we realized the flexibility we have as a organized militia from the, from the state that we can bring people in and we can, we can do some things. I know we’ll talk a little bit about that later, but there’s a lot of flexibility, um, in what we can bring to support the state.
Jean Marciniak: (10:52)
Uh, I’m big is the, uh, Maryland defense force.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (10:57)
You know, right now we’re about 180 strong, not, not counting some of the other things we just talked about about being flexible. Um, our numbers, we seem to go, uh, up and down. We were, I think two years ago, we were closer to 140. So we have had some people come in a during COVID, it’s an interesting thing. Uh, to me is the busier we are. And the more missions we have, the easier it is for us to recruit, you know, we, we talk about this volunteer, volunteer to work. They don’t volunteer to wait to be called. So, so the more activity we have, the more missions we have, the easier it is for us to recruit. And, and during this COVID time, as you can imagine, we’ve had a lot of needs and, um, we’ve had a good number of, of people come in.
Jean Marciniak: (11:56)
How are you recruiting efforts going? Um, do you find that you’re bringing in, uh, more, uh, prior service or is it more non prior service volunteers?
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (12:07)
Recruiting is, is tough. Um, with COVID we used to do a lot more onsite visits and go to go to some shows, trade shows or some, um, community events where, where we could be and, and talk to them. And a lot of those have been counseled. So it’s been a hard time, uh, recruiting. Um, we find that where are probably about 50, 50, 50 for people who have prior service prior military service. So we seem to get a couple different kinds. We get people that have served and wanna continue to serve. Maybe they left and they’re missing the comradery that we had in the military. And they’re looking for that. And, and we’re a good answer to that. Plus, you know, we, we tend to, to have that service mentality, so they come back and then we have a number of other people who are, you know, maybe in the thirties and forties, maybe fifties and sixties, that wished they had served and realize that they wanted to, and they find out they can now they can’t with the guard anymore, or, or with active duty, but we are a, a great solution for them.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (13:27)
And they realize that, and they come to us wanting to serve, wanting to serve in uniform to be part of that, of that military, um, culture. And, and although we’re not, we’re not the guard, we’re not active duty. We, we are, um, according to title 32 and, and, and our state, we are an organized military. Uh, we train that way. We dress that way. Uh, we organize that way, um, and they re and they really get that culture. So one of the things that we’d like to do from a recruiting standpoint is, is start to recruit some college level, young people types, you know, almost a, almost like you’d have a small business. You know, when we’re talking about 140 people, we really were, we’re pulling professionals, um, looking for certain, um, skills. And now that we’re getting to the 180 and we’d like to be 200, um, because we, we kind of need those to be able to, to bring the skills, um, to the state that, that they expect from us.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (14:42)
Um, we, we need to look at a different way than just pulling in people who are already certified professionals. So we’re, we’re talking about how to do that. Um, we’ve got some ideas about, um, working with free state challenge. So when those kids graduate, maybe some of those will like to be volunteers. We’ve got some colleges that we’re talking to, but maybe bringing some of those people in. And what that would require us to do is, is to do some more fundamental training and some mentoring, which I think we have the people now to do. Um, so recruiting is changing sub for us. And I, I think it looks good. It’s a, it’s a great idea. Um, we just need to figure out a way to execute it. And, and I think really to, to get that bowl rolling, we, we kind of need to be out of the COVID environment, uh, to be able to get out there and talk to people and introduce ourselves.
Jean Marciniak: (15:46)
Yeah. And I, I’ve been noticing it’s getting worse than, rather than better, but, um, I kind of wanna cover, uh, so for the non prior service, uh, do you guys have a, like a basic training, uh, for the non prior service that joined the, uh, Maryland defense force?
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (16:05)
We do. We, we have a, uh, initial training, initial entry training for everybody, even the prior, I, I even went through it. So it it’s for everybody. Now, if your prior service, there’s some things you can opt out of, probably don’t need to know how to March. We, we learned that, uh, custom courtesy wearing the uniform, but there are some things we all have to learn, you know, the history of the defense force and how we it into the structure. As, as I said, we are not the guard. So when, when people come in that are prior service, we need them to understand, um, that, that we are a volunteer military. That’s part of the state. We fall under the state, it’s a little different and here’s the history of it. And here’s how we work with our primary customer, which is the Maryland military part.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (16:57)
But we have, we require everybody to go through that, uh, initial training. There’s also, since our mission is to respond to state emergencies, we also have, um, some mandatory FEMA training. That’s part of our entry that a lot of times in the military, we didn’t have, I was unfortunately in Los Angeles stationed at Los Angeles airport space, uh, when the Northridge quake happened. And, uh, it was a pretty devastating event and we needed to re help respond with FEMA. And none of us had any of that train. We didn’t, we didn’t know how to work with FEMA. We weren’t sure what they brought to the table. They weren’t sure what we brought to the table. And that’s an important poll that we have to fill as part of the state defense force is make sure our people understand how we are going to work. Um, cuz we work according to usually FEMA standards or male and emergency emergency management agency or department standards. And we need to learn those. They have a little different language, there’s a little different organization. It’s just enough that, that we need to have that. And we, and we add that to our initial trainings. So whether you’re prior service and a Colonel OPIC or uh, an oh three, if you spent four years in, everybody gets that.
Jean Marciniak: (18:26)
Oh wow. Okay. Interesting. Uh, in regards to training, I know we kind of went over some of the missions that you’re heavily involved in, but on a typical, uh, let’s say, you know, weekend or annual training, um, what kind of training do you focus on? Do each unit focuses on their own medical and then the cyber focuses on theirs. Do you have training that you’re evolving, um, uh, throughout the organization?
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (18:54)
Yeah. We, we have several different kinds of training. You, you mentioned unit training, so we kind of got pushed in this direction. I, I thought it was a good place to go, but COVID really, really pushed us. There is it turned out because of some of the state rules and with COVID and the governor’s intent. It didn’t make sense to us to have 180 people in a, in a room on a weekend, uh, to do training really. So we pushed all the units to do their own. So we have a annual muster. That’s a state reply for us. So we, we muster all of the Maryland defense force into one location once a year to show that we’re available, we’re ready, we’re trained, we’re good to go. Uh, that’s an annual requirement. And then, um, two other times during the year, uh, we to get a hundred percent of us together, uh, for a single weekend.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (19:55)
At that time we work on, um, uh, large training exercises. We’ve realized that none of us will ever go to the field by ourselves. You know, you think, well, if a hurricane came through or tornado, you’d send the engineer out there to take a look at the buildings and what the damage is. But in reality, I need to take a chaplain with me because there may be some people hurting that need to talk to somebody and they need to communicate, or maybe they’re physically hurt. I, I need to take some, some people from the 10th, me with me. So we’ve started getting each unit to focus on their specific skills and, and what they train to. And then as a group, we start talking about how we would integrate and go out together. Uh, it, it becomes a bit of a problem when we’re only 180 strong.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (20:54)
And if you figure I’m 180 strong and there’s a state emergency, maybe 50 of us can’t respond because we’re perhaps somewhere or we’re in a shelter ourselves. Um, so really we’re bringing about a hundred people, um, there. So, so we do those two levels of training. And then the other training that we do is professional training, leadership training. Uh, one thing we’re pushing for because we are volunteers and we’re, we’re not paid. We push our unit to train and get certifications and things people can put on their resume. Hmm. People are volunteering their time to be with us. We wanna give them skills that they can take back to their employer or put on their resume. So those are the three trainings we do the unit level, the integrated response, and then professional skills,
Jean Marciniak: (21:54)
Uh, kind of moving over to missions. Uh, you were mentioning a couple, uh, you were mentioning the engineer unit, the cyber unit, uh, the medical, uh, are there any other kind of missions that we missed, uh, or that you wanted to kind of mention?
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (22:08)
Yes, we have, uh, a unit called troop command. Um, underneath them. They’ve got, uh, our training battalion is there. That does a lot of the professional training, but we also have financial people. We have lawyers, we have chaplains underneath, uh, troop command. So we do a lot of, um, counseling with people. We re we help out when, um, the guard is deploying. We go there to help out with wills and, uh, talking to them about finances and, and helping them understand, uh, paying benefits and other issue use that they would have. Uh, so troop command does a lot of our, um, responding to things like that. Uh, they also, um, Help us a lot with the free state challenge group and they’re, uh, their commanders, Lieutenant Colonel, Fred Sandford. He’s a, it’s a professional educator and it’s really nice to have him there. He can help us, uh, make sure we’re training people well because he has that education.
Jean Marciniak: (23:19)
Wow. That’s amazing. And kind of picking back off that, uh, I know, um, one key to success for a state defense force is having a great working relationship, uh, at, um, your state’s national guard. Uh, how is your, uh, how is your working relationship with your state’s national guard?
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (23:38)
Uh, I feel we have a good, uh, relationship with the guard. Uh, they appreciate and value, uh, what we deliver to the state. Um, and although we, we don’t normally get financial pay and I bring this up at every time we’re, we’re talking together, we get paid, we, the defense force, we get paid with respect and appreciation. Um, and I make sure that the seniors know that at and the tag. Um, we invite him, he’s, he’s talked to us on many occasion. Uh, he comes to our musters and speaks to us. He, um, over and over again, talks about how, um, they’re just amazed. The guard is just amazed at what the defense force brings and how we respond, um, to emergencies and requests for labor, um, and how much, uh, we bring to the state. In fact, uh, two years ago, I think it was, we were recognized by the governor as a, uh, volunteer organizational award in the government CA so the governor, uh, his, those committees recognized us as well. So we feel we have a good working relationship where it’s always in an education, uh, mode, try to make sure they understand what we can bring again, you know, so I brought it before requests for work, good to the joint staff. We, the defense force have people on the joint staff. Um, so we work with them to say, we could bring that to the table. That’s really not something we could do. Um, but they, they look to us and they appreciate what we, what we bring to them.
Jean Marciniak: (25:23)
Uh, do you have any missions that, where you work hand in with the, uh, with your army national guard or air national guard?
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (25:32)
Yes. In fact, I’d, I’d say most of them. Um, oh, wow. We work in we’ve we, um, most of the COVID missions, we, we went together, you know, as I said before, um, we have, we have chaplains, which, which help bring some other skills to the table. Uh, we did some food distribution, our chaplains went there, um, to talk to people who were doing drive through to get food during COVID to make sure they were okay. And, um, you know, to, to get a sense of how they doing when we, we did, uh, Colonel green in the 10th med, um, did a mission for the guard where we were, um, training and testing people for COVID and fitting masks for people who were going to go into nursing homes. And we did a lot of that mission by ourselves, but it was as part of a, of a guard mission.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (26:36)
So most of our missions we do, um, with the guard. So probably eight out of 10 missions we do with the guard and our band. Sometimes our band, they ask us to, uh, to come and play with them so that the, the guard band has a few extra, um, instruments there. And, and we’ll actually play concerts with the, with the guard band. So it’s wow. It’s a very, yeah, it’s a very hand in hand. We talk about we compliment and supplement, um, the guard and, and right now it’s, it it’s mostly supplementing them except for the engineers, um, who, who really have a mission that the go R doesn’t do? Um, I, I think every one of our other missions really is with the guard.
Jean Marciniak: (27:32)
Wow. Okay. That’s amazing. So kind of going, uh, kind of like even make, uh, piggybacking off that one, um, you have thousands of missions in your, uh, defense force history. And, uh, there was one that, a mission that, uh, I remember reading about in 2007 that I had to read a couple times over, cause I couldn’t believe it. Um, which was a historic first for any state defense force nationwide. Uh, and the entire century that state defense forces have been around. Um, your state defense force has, um, in 2007, your medical unit, uh, I believe deployed with the Maryland air national guard to Bosnia. Um, can you tell us a little bit about that mission? I remember, uh, reading about it. Uh, I believe we have it in our, our news section, our site, uh, but I I’m, I’m very curious about, uh, how such a mission could, uh, came about, um, what kind of relationship that you, uh, need to have with the national guard. Uh, did the governor have to approve something like that?
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (28:44)
Okay. Um, I knew that was a unique mission. I didn’t know we were the only ones to ever have, have done that. Um, but that tag and the, and the governor were all involved in that. Um, so the guard, um, has, uh, programs, um, with other nations, ours in Maryland, we, we have two, um, nations that we have a relationship with. One is Estonia and the other one is, uh, Bosnia and her Avena. So when our, when our group was going out to Bosnia, there was a need. Um, and at the time they thought that that the 10th medical unit was the, had the skills to be able to do that. And this, um, state partnership program is, is what it’s called, um, with the guard, the state works with them to get them to understand how we do what we do, um, learn from each other.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (29:48)
It it’s really a, a good program. And, um, it’s done at the state level and I think it’s, it was partially done. One to meet the need, but two to say, look, here’s something we do here in Maryland. We have a state defense force and they bring other skills to the table. They’re, they’re not full-time guard. They’re not part-time guard. This is, this is a state relationship. And it it’s something you could also think about if it, if it benefited you, you know, we don’t, we don’t need to be in, in the military to actually help our state. Um, it’s nice from an organizational standpoint. Um, but there’s some, some things we can learn. So, so sharing how Maryland does what Maryland does. Um, and, and recently we’ve had other state call us to understand how the defense force works, um, in the state of Maryland, I think is, is good.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (30:47)
And part of the mission that we had there in 2007. So we, we did, uh, it’s an, we are a volunteer force, so people were asked if they wanted to, uh, commit to do that. Um, and then it was also sponsored by the, uh, the tag and our, and our governor. So on our other side, our other partner would be Estonia. We recently, um, they were here, um, gosh, I’m gonna say four years ago and went to one of our musters. Oh. So we actually got to spend time with them. Um, they came here and we plane, here’s what we do, and here’s how we do it. And, and this is the relationship we have between our, between our state national guard. I can say it that way. And our state defense force. And they came to our muster, they saw us all, they spoke to us, we spoke to them. Um, we shared how we do what we do and, and it was real education in both directions. Um, we learned a lot from them and hopefully they learned a lot from us, but it, it was a, I think it was a one off type of thing. It was unique. Um, as I said before, there’s a lot of flexibility with the state defense force. It can be done, obviously, cuz we’ve done it. Uh, um, but, but I think that may be a unique mission. You, you may not see many if any more of those.
Jean Marciniak: (32:12)
Oh, okay. That was actually my next question. If, uh, such missions were possible again, uh, I’ve have been noticing, especially, um, in the last couple of years, deployments, uh, force state defense forces, uh, for out-of-state missions have, uh, increased, uh, especially in the last five years, uh, the, uh, hurricane that hit Puerto Rico, um, you know, the Alaska state defense force, uh, deployed for, uh, one of the few times in their history all the way to Puerto Rico. And, uh, so I was kind of curious if, um, cuz your state defense force also deployed, uh, to hurricane Katrina and then I believe a few other times to other different states depending on the, um, uh, emergence. See, um, but, uh, what kind of, in regards to that kind of question, um, do you believe such a mission like that in the future could be possible where, uh, you would be paired up with the army national guard or air national guard and assist in a, a logistical or medical or uh, engineering aspect.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (33:19)
Yeah, you bet. I, and I think that’s, that is already, uh, allowed and there is a, uh, there’s a process for that. Oh wow. So, and, and that’s also listed in the log where a governor, um, I wanna say the Emax system and I hate to use this acronym that I don’t know the answer to, but there a governor from another state can request the governor of Maryland to assist using their state defenses so that that’s already sitting there. It it’s an opportunity that can be used and that, and I believe that’s how it happened with Katrina.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (34:00)
And really, I think it makes a lot of sense, you know, a lot of hurricanes tornadoes, they’re not national problems as much as they’re regional. Um, so the fact that, that we were fine up here, um, gave us an opportunity to, to take our state defense forces and send them down there to help. Um, so I expect that to continue. I, I expect as, um, other states or understanding what defense forces bring to the table. And I know as, um, I, um, active with the state guard association of the us August, other states are asking about us, was in the news recently about wanting to set up, um, or restart their state defense force. People are realizing what state defense forces can bring to the table, um, and take some of the burden off, off of the national guard and people like it. It’s, it’s a great idea.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (35:04)
It really fosters the service mentality, which I think we all need, you know, serving our community has gives you benefit. It gives a se it gives the community benefit. Um, so, so I think this is gonna continue this way. Uh, I know the, the tags, when I talk to my tag, he asks me about other, uh, other defense forces. When we get together as, as state defense forces, we share what we do and how we do it and maybe our instructional material and our skills and capabilities with each other. Um, and so I think this is, this is going to continue. Um, so I’m, I’m looking forward to that.
Jean Marciniak: (35:52)
Uh, so one other thing that I want to kind of cover head on, uh, because it’s it, it’s, it’s kind of the, uh, elephant in the room, uh, is the COVID 19 pandemic and you were mentioning that the Maryland defense force has, um, been activated and that you guys are, uh, performing missions, uh, related to COVID 19. Uh, you mentioned, uh, a few, uh, minutes ago regarding, uh, you were working with, at the national guard by, uh, setting up, um, mask station. So, uh, when they go into nursing homes, uh, what kinda other missions have you been, um, performing during the, uh, COVID 19 pandemic?
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (36:30)
Uh, we, we performed, uh, missions, not at the VA, uh, the VA veterans administration, um, set up Saturday clinics to give vaccinations and needed some extra, uh, manpower to help out with that. So we, uh, we went there, uh, we helped with parking, um, keeping people in line, filling out forms, um, and getting the veterans, uh, to sign, uh, their forms and then get their, uh, get their vaccinations. We did the food distribution. Uh, we did some, um, equity task force work, you know, here in, uh, here in Maryland. Um, there was a, an extra, uh, group called the equity task force to make sure that there was equal opportunity, um, for vaccine nations throughout the community. And so that, uh, that caused us to open up, um, some additional sites. Um, and so we helped out in some of those areas, um,
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (37:32)
I think, oh, and then, uh, for, uh, that free state challenge that I mentioned before, we actually did the testing of the cadets. They wanted to make sure all the cadets, um, tested negative before they, uh, moved into the barracks, uh, for the program. And so we were the ones who, uh, who did the testing for that and, uh, determined that, uh, people were negative or positive and passed that information on. I think there’s probably could have been some more things that we did, but could do. Um, but I was a little hesitant for that. You know, we’re a big, um, risk management group and, um,
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (38:12)
I wanted to keep our people out of the high threat or high risk, high exposure areas. It’s really hard, um, to determine if you ever ended up with COVID. I don’t know if, if you have, um, but where you got it from as, yeah. And when the guard is on active duty, which they were, um, during COVID, you know, D doesn’t really matter where they got it. Um, they’re treated medically when, when we go on state active duty, it could be for a day, it could be for two days, it could be for half a day. Um, and then three days later, if, if one of my people ended up, um, with COVID, it really became problem. And I was concerned about the ability to, to determine where, um, where they got COVID from, and if it was on one of the missions that I had approved for them to go on. So we, we looked at all the missions and, and determined that we wanted to keep, uh, our people out of the high exposure, uh, opportunities. So, so we stayed in the outdoor areas.
Jean Marciniak: (39:20)
So, um, kind of moving over to, uh, I wanted to kind of get your feedback, uh, regarding, so for there, uh, there are some state defense forces and state guards out there that are less active, uh, than you. What kind of, of recommendations do you have for the less active state guards out there and state defense forces? Um, what kind of recommendation do you have for them to have a, that better working relationship like you have with the, uh, with their national guard?
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (39:48)
I would say start small, you know, you, you can’t, you can’t do everything. We, we look and say, here’s all the things we could do, and we could help out, you really need to pick a few things, um, to help out and then show the value to the state. We have a timecard system, um, that we keep here that, uh, everybody puts in their time for the month, or if they’re doing inspections or missions, we track all that time. So, so that at the end of the quarter, and then again, at the end of the year, we can talk to the state and say, this is the value we’re bringing to you. It, it becomes obvious, um, when we’re doing the work about all the value that we’re bringing, but really being able to say, here’s what we did for you. So I think that’s important as well, start small, find a, find a real need that the state has, and then look for people that can help and focus on that need. We can’t do everything. Um, and especially if you’re just starting out, you wanna prove the value that you can bring to the state and, and just pick one or two, two areas and then grow from there.
Jean Marciniak: (41:07)
Uh, kind of finishing up, uh, I just have two more questions I want to cover. Uh, so we don’t go over the, uh, kind of a lot of time. Uh, I wanted to ask, um, what do you think state defense forces, state guards need to do to, uh, better grow and develop in the, in the short term log in the current environment?
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (41:26)
I, I think you’ve brought it up. It it’s really, it’s engaging with your, uh, community and your guard unit. One, one of the things that we’re talking about, um, here, and I talked to the tag about it yesterday is engaging with our communities. You know, you can’t get prepared for an emergency once it’s happened. Um, and, and we, as a state defense force, we’re not first responders, we’re not second responders, we’re not third responders, but we have a lot of skills we can bring to people and communities, organizations, and help them get prepared, uh, for an emergency. So what we’ve talked about is having a C community outreach, community engagement, um, focus where we can go out and, and train people and help people know here’s what here’s, what’s gonna happen. Here’s how you need to prepared. Um, here’s what, um, some things you need to think about and here are some solutions you should, would look at.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (42:34)
So I, I would think what we wanna do is, is be active in the community, uh, talk to people about what we do. Um, I think one of the exciting things about the state defense force is that we’re open to everybody, you know, as being an active duty, um, military guy, I had a friend who was, um, ready to go commissioned and, uh, due to a motorcycle accident he had in high school, he was deemed, uh, unavailable for duty. Um, and that he wasn’t gonna get his commission. We don’t have those problems in the state defense force. There could be people that, that are, you know, have high allergies or diabetics or some other issue that keeps them out of the military. We, we don’t have that problem in the state defense force. We, we can accept, uh, people, we can use them, uh, they can, uh, I’ll call it, deploy with us.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (43:29)
We’re just, you know, going somewhere in the state. But I think getting to the community and telling them here’s a great place to serve, and this is why it’s of value to you. And this is why it’s value to the state. So, so I would think community engagement is one of them. And then the, the other one was engage with your, with your guard, uh, talk to your a, um, talked to some of the other senior people in the, um, in the guard, both air guard and, and army guard, let them know what you can do for them. I know, uh, going around and we’re talking at the oh four at the major Lieutenant Colonel Colonel level, they’re still a lot of people in, he even here in Maryland that don’t really understand the state defense force and how to, how to, um, bring us on a mission and what we can bring to the table and, uh, how it can be of value for them. So I think that’s a continual process, a continual engagement.
Jean Marciniak: (44:36)
Uh, and the last question that I have is, uh, what are your long term plans for the Maryland defense force? Where do you see the defense force, or where would you like to see the defense force in five to 10 years?
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (44:47)
Uh, it’s an interesting question. I, I spoke to the, the tag and this was one of the subjects we talked about, uh, yesterday. Um, we wanna continue to be this premier volunteer organization that’s providing, uh, critical, measured value to our state. Um, I want the Maryland defense force to be a place where people come not only to serve, but to have unique opportunities in training that provide them professional opportunities in the future. Um, even if those are, um, maybe don’t seem like they’re, um, really a military state defense force thing, uh, um, you know, here we have the Baltimore Ravens going there and talking to those people who run that facility and manage that facility. It’s an opportunity. A lot of people don’t get, um, and us going and saying, Hey, here’s an opportunity we can do with state defense force. And they want us to come and hell helping those people get opportunities and exposure, uh, to new and different things they would normally not get is something I push on a lot, um, as the command in general.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (46:05)
And then the other thing I’ve already talked a little bit about is see us engage with, with younger people, bring them men, mentor them, provide training. Um, this to me is, is one of the places we, as, as a country need, need to go. I think we need to do a better job engaging, um, with the young people, um, talking together, working together, other mentoring the, I, I have a lot to learn from my grandchildren. I’ll tell you that there, they know so many things I don’t know. Um, and there’s value in us sitting at the same table. And I think creating these opportunities for all of us to be at the same table and have discussions have hard discussions, um, providing time we do that, we try to do that in the defense force at the end of the day is, is just get together and have some, have some food, um, and some time to sit down with people and talk, uh, I think that’s an important thing and, and create this, uh, social community of people who wanna serve. Um, and the more we grow together as a group, I think the more that’s gonna grow in our state. Um, so that that’s where I’d like us to go.
Jean Marciniak: (47:31)
Wow. Yeah, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll leave it right there, cuz I think that was a perfect ending.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (47:36)
Well, I appreciate your time and being here with you.
Jean Marciniak: (47:38)
Thank you, Jennifer, for coming on the show. I really appreciate it. Um, thanks for, uh, you and your, uh, force for all that you guys do. Uh, I love seeing you guys, uh, posted on the us army website or DI’s, uh, and, uh, how active you guys are. So, uh, thank you for, uh, for your service and, uh, hopefully we can have you back on the show and then kind of dive into other topics. Thank you so much general. I appreciate it.
Brigadier General Gregory Juday: (48:03)
All right. Have a good night.
