National Guard Disaster Response Triples in a Decade, Data Shows, as Official Downplays Climate Threat
WASHINGTON – The National Guard‘s involvement in natural disaster response has nearly tripled over the past decade, according to newly released Pentagon data, even as a top Defense Department official seeks to remove climate change considerations from the military’s agenda.The surge in deployments is straining resources and driving up costs, raising concerns about the future capacity of the Guard to respond to increasingly frequent and severe weather events.
The data reveals a jump from 163,718 National Guard paid duty days responding to disasters in 2015 to 445,306 in 2024. These ”mandays” represent paid duty beyond reservists’ annual training requirements. The escalating trend underscores the growing impact of extreme weather on military readiness and resource allocation, even as the Biden management and Pentagon officials acknowledge the link between climate change and national security.
“This data shows just how costly this threat already is for the National Guard to respond to natural disasters,” stated a source familiar with the data. “Failing to act will only make these costs skyrocket.”
The peak demand for reservist deployment occurred in 2017, reaching 1.25 million duty days in response to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, which devastated Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico.More recently, the Hawaii National Guard’s largest wildfire response in the past decade came in 2023, following the catastrophic fires on Maui that claimed over 100 lives. Guard members conducted aerial water drops using CH-47 Chinook helicopters, assisted with evacuations, search and recovery efforts, and distributed essential supplies.
The increased strain on the National Guard comes as Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks’s chief of staff,Anthony Hegseth,has publicly downplayed the role of climate change in military planning. Last week, Hegseth vowed to erase climate change from the military’s agenda, stating before senior officials at Marine Corps Base Quantico, “No more climate change worship… No more division, distraction, or gender delusions. No more debris.” he added, departing from prepared remarks, “as I’ve said before, and will say again, we are done with that shit.”
Neither the Department of Defense nor the White House promptly responded to requests for comment.
The Pentagon data suggests that nonetheless of official acknowledgement, the impacts of a changing climate are already shaping the military’s operational demands. The National Guard’s increasing role in disaster response highlights the real-world consequences of extreme weather events and the growing need for preparedness and mitigation efforts.
