[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 11920]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            RETIREMENT OF LIEUTENANT GENERAL CLYDE A. VAUGHN

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, this week, LTG Clyde Vaughn, Director of 
the Army National Guard, retires after almost 35 years of excellent 
service to the Army National Guard and the U.S. Army. He has been an 
absolutely superb Army Guard Director.
  Under General Vaughn's watch, the Guard has undertaken one of the 
most successful recruiting programs in history. The Army Guard has 
become more capable, ready, and better equipped than at any point over 
the past several decades. Under his watch, the Army Guard has helped 
make the country stronger. General Vaughn leaves big shoes to fill.
  The Army National Guard is a critically important part of the Army 
and the entire Armed Forces. Citizen-soldiers from the Army National 
Guard have comprised a high percentage of the forces on the ground in 
Iraq and Afghanistan. The members of the Army Guard also are our 
military first responders for emergencies at home, ready to quickly 
support our elected leaders and other civilian authorities in such 
emergencies as flooding and hurricanes. General Vaughn has brought an 
acute understanding of the Army National Guard, built from his 
experiences in the Missouri National Guard and from successful joint 
assignments in Washington and further afield.
  During his time as Army Guard Director, the National Guard has racked 
up some extraordinary accomplishments. Soldiers--the proud citizen-
soldiers from all the States and Territories--and families have 
remained foremost in General Vaughn's mind. In recent years, the Army 
Guard has reversed a downward trend in filling its ranks and boosted 
enlistments tremendously. We have a more educated and a healthier force 
with more full-time personnel. In his last months on the job, General 
Vaughn has laid out a sensible plan to build readiness within the Army 
Guard, ending the harmful practice of counting untrained and transient 
soldiers against the end-strength of various units.
  Working closely with Congress, General Vaughn has also ensured that 
the Guard has more modern equipment. The Army Guard has much better 
gear today than it did 4 years ago.
  Lieutenant General Vaughn is a leader who forthrightly lays out his 
views, whether to Congress or his counterparts in the active Army. It 
is this deep honesty and intelligence that has made him an inspiration 
to his subordinates and a close adviser to his superiors. Lieutenant 
General Clyde Vaughn knows and loves the Army National Guard, having 
lived and breathed with this force of citizen-soldiers for more than 
three decades. The country owes General Vaughn, as well as his wife 
Carol and kids Chad and Kristi, our thanks and hearty congratulations 
on a job, very well done.

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