More than 140 soldiers of the California National Guard’s (CNG) 132nd Multi-Role Bridge Company will be welcomed home from Afghanistan by friends and family on Sunday and Monday at airports across California.

As I look back on the past year, I draw great pride from being a part of an organization that has done so much to help Californians, residents of other states and people in countries around the globe.

The first in a series of many dilapidated WWII era barracks at Camp Roberts is demolished with a little assistance from Major General David S. Baldwin, the Adjutant General of the California National Guard.

Air National Guardsmen from the 129th Rescue Wing are scheduled to depart here tomorrow morning to conduct a long-range overwater rescue mission to provide lifesaving medical treatment to a sailor and who suffered a head injury on board the Filipino merchant vessel, Cary Rackmers. The vessel is currently 1,000 miles off the coast of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Throughout my years of service in the National Guard, I have seen the State Active Duty (SAD) system misinterpreted, mismanaged and on occasion abused. When I was appointed adjutant general by Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. in April 2011, I vowed to make the SAD force more professional, operationally capable and accountable.

The Soldiers and Airmen of the California National Guard are skilled, talented, courageous warriors who have proven their abilities time and again while joining their active duty counterparts in combat operations overseas. But the defining characteristic of the National Guard is our domestic-response mission.

The 129th Rescue Wing successfully completed a collaborative tactical training exercise coined Soaring Angel 13-1 here in a simulated deployed environment, Oct. 11-13. The exercise objectives were to rapidly deploy, construct and operate from Forward Operating Base Schoonover located at Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif., which is more than 140 miles from home station at Moffett Federal Airfield.

California National Guard Youth ChalleNGe academies are raising the bar across the nation, posting top-notch graduation and post-graduate placement rates and coming forth with groundbreaking ideas. Sunburst, on Joint Forces Training Base, Los Alamitos, and Grizzly Youth ChalleNGe Academy on Camp San Luis Obispo received funding this year based on a target graduation total of 175 students from Grizzly and 165 students from Sunburst, but both currently have more than 200 students enrolled.

The U.S. military is the strongest in the world, and it has been for decades. But it is not a one-size-fits-all force.

In a dark room with video monitors covering an entire wall, the Joint Operations Center responds to emergency calls and forwards critical information to the leadership of the California National Guard.

Sept. 27 event will inform Soldiers, employees about available resources.

On Sept. 7 one of our California Army National Guard UH-60's belonging to 1-140th Aviation (Air Assault), which was supporting the Scotts wildfire, conducted a precautionary landing in a private field near North Lakeport due to a warning light indicator. Everyone is safe.