Ray Lewis Pays Tribute To Returning Md. National Guard Troops
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A warm welcome home celebration for nearly 200 soldiers of the Maryland Army National Guard.
Marcus Washington explains their return comes after a year-long deployment and the beginning talks of cuts that could affect training and pay.
When a soldier returns home from war, it's a prayer answered by many families.
"It always feels good to see everybody made it back home safely. Everybody is back with their family and friends," said Staff Sgt. Arthur Ball," Maryland Army National Guard.
Saturday was no exception, as 158 soldiers from the 12-29th were welcomed home by former Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis.
"I cannot thank you all enough for just the opportunity to stand in a room amongst heroes," Lewis said.
Their return comes as the National Guard Bureau is in the process of requesting to reallocate funds to close a $100 million shortfall. Right now, there are talks of cutting September drills for most soldiers, including here in Maryland, which would cost $1.5 million.
"Our hopes is that we're going to be able to get the funding so that we can get all of our drills in for the year," said Brig. Gen. Linda Singh, Maryland Army National Guard.
Cuts in funding will mean loss of income for 3,900 of the 4,700 soldiers with the Maryland National Guard.
"We've had to go through and really look at some of our individuals that we've had to make exceptions to in order to get them into drill and pay so they would have a good year," said Singh.
Those cuts don't just affect pay, but extensive training for the guards that could get reduced to only nine or ten months this fiscal year.
"When we started this training year, we were actually hit with sequestration. So typically, the guard has about 12 months in which we conduct training," Singh said.
Once behind in training, soldiers will have to pick up the next fiscal year, which starts in October.
"The Maryland Guard, we're going to stand strong, we're going to stand true no matter what happens with the budget situation," Singh said.
Officers say not having drills in September will not put the proficiency that a troop has at risk, but it does take away from the troop doing more collective tasks.
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