Published: October 29, 2009 09:46 pm      

Excellent choice — 10/31/09

Ernie Pitt is well suited as advocate for Guard, Reserves

Ashland attorney Ernest M. Pitt Jr. is an excellent choice as the new Area 4 director for the Kentucky Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. Pitt knows first hand the essential role National Guard and Reserve units play in today’s military and how the support of civilian employers is critical for both the National Guard and the Reserve to maintain the manpower they need to do their increasingly important jobs.

Area 4 corresponds with Kentucky’s fourth congressional district represented by Republican Geoff Davis.

Pitt retired as a colonel after 30 years in the in U.S. Army and Army Reserve. He knows what it is like to put his civilian career as an attorney on hold to serve on active duty in the military. So do many other area members of the National Guard and the Reserve. At one time members of the National Guard and the Reserve were called “weekend soldiers” who surrendered one weekend a month and a couple of weeks in the summer for military training. Their chances of actually being called into active duty for an expanded period of time were slim.

But the role of the National Guard and Reserve began to increase with the advent of the all-volunteer military, and since the 1980s, Guard and Reserve units have been called into active duty in every military conflict. Pitt himself was called into active duty during the first Gulf War, and during the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, nearly every single member of the National Guard and Reserve has been called into active duty. Some have been called more than once.

That, of course, has placed an added strain on their civilian employees. Many civilian employees either have had to operate short-handed or temporarily hire replacements for employees called into active duty. Members of the Guard and Reserve are guaranteed positions with their civilian employers when their tours of duty have ended.

Some employers are reluctant to hire members of the Guard or Reserve because the risk of losing their service if they are called into active duty, yet still having to keep a position open for them upon their return. One of Pitt’s tasks in his new position will be to convince employers to hire members of the Guard and Reserve despite the risk of losing them for extended periods of time. One way of doing that is convincing employers of how they are helping their country achieve its military objectives by allowing their employees to serve.

If anyone can convince a reluctant employer to support employees who serve in the Guard and the Reserve, it is Ernie Pitt. He knows from decades of experience that today’s members of the Guard and Reserve are a lot more than just “weekend soldiers.”