BALTIMORE - In fiscal year 2009, the Department of Defense helped to grow the Army National Guard's budget to just over $30 billion, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told an audience here at the National Guard Association of the United States (NGAUS) conference earlier this week.

"The department made a commitment several years ago to ensure that the Guard is fully manned, fully trained and fully equipped," he said. This level of resources for the Guard is unprecedented."

The $30 billion is an increase of $1.2 billion from the previous year, Gates said.

At the end of fiscal year 2013, Gates said the Army Guard's equipment will be comparable to the equipment used by the active Army.

"Nearly 80 percent of Army National Guard equipment on hand will be fully modernized by the end of fiscal year 2013," Gates said. "For the first time ever, the Guard will receive the latest equipment provided to the active force - a change that is long overdue."

For example, the HH-60M Blackhawk helicopter was introduced to the NGAUS crowd Sept. 21. This airframe will be used for aeromedical missions in wartime and for domestic emergencies.

"It is the [work] horse of what we do in the United States and around the world," said Lt. Gen. Clyde Vaughn, the director of the Army Guard. "This thing is about saving lives and preventing suffering."

Vaughn also touted the Army Guard's recruiting numbers for this fiscal year. "Our end-strength appropriation is 351,300," he said. "We're supposed to be at 358,000 by 2013. We're over that now."

He said the latest recruiting show the Army Guard exceeding its programmed end strength by nearly 1,000 at 362,014 Soldiers.

Finally, Vaughn acknowledged that even as progress has been made and even some goals exceeded, there is still more work to be done to make the Guard the force envisioned by him, the secretary of defense and other reserve commanders.