318 Hayes

Voiceover: This program is produced in partnership with the National Guard. Voiceover: The following is a production of the Pritzker Military Museum and Library. Bringing citizens and citizen soldiers together through the exploration of military history, topics, and current affairs, this is Pritzker Military Presents. Clarke: Welcome to Pritzker Military Presents with Major General Richard J. Hayes, Jr., Adjutant General, . I’m your host Ken Clarke, and this program is coming to you from the Pritzker Military Museum and Library in downtown , and it’s produced in partnership with the Illinois National Guard. This program and hundreds more are available on demand at PritzkerMilitary.org. The National Guard is the epitome of the citizen soldier tradition, spanning more than 360 years of United States military history. The state-based reserve branch of the military serves a dual mission: responding to natural or man-made disasters around the country or military operations around the globe. Approximately 350,000 guardsmen currently serve in fifty-four individual state units and territories of the United States under the motto "Always ready, always there.” The Illinois National Guard was formed on May 9, 1723 as a colonial French militia and has grown to approximately 13,000 members in the 21st century. Here to talk about his role in the Illinois National Guard and his military service is Major General Richard J. Hayes, Jr. the 39th adjutant general of the state of Illinois. Major General Hayes assumed the duties of adjutant general on June 8, 2015. He serves as a member of the governors' cabinet as the director of the Illinois Department of Military Affairs and as the governor's principle advisor on military matters. General Hayes is a senior officer in the chain of command for both the Illinois Army and Air National Guard. General Hayes was commissioned in 1987 from the reserve officer training corps program at the University of Kansas as a field artillery officer. He was an honor graduate of both the field artillery officer basic and advanced courses, and he has had operational assignments at the battery, battalion, brigade, and division levels. He participated in Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita relief operations and Operation Joint Guardian Kosovo. General Hayes most recent assignments were deputy commander maneuver Task Force Falcon, Operation Joint Guardian Kosovo, director of operations J-3 Illinois National Guard, commander 129th regional training institute, director of the joint staff, and assistant adjutant general army. Some of his military awards include the Legion of Merit with one Bronze Oak Leaf cluster, Meritorious Service Medal with two Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Commendation Medal with One Silver and one Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster, among many others. He holds a bachelor’s of arts in geography from the University of Kansas and a master’s of business administration from Touro University International. As part of his duties as adjutant general, General Hayes serves as director of department of military affairs and oversees the Illinois State Military Museum. Hayes and the Illinois National Guard were early partners in the Museum and Library's work with the World War One Centennial Commission. With his support and the support of Governor Bruce Rauner, the Illinois National Guard and the Pritzker Military Museum and Library became the state of Illinois leaders in helping ensure that the people of Illinois remember the service and sacrifices of those Illinois individuals and their families who served during WWI, as stated in the official gubernatorial proclamation on April 1, 2016. Please join me in welcoming to the Pritzker Military Museum and Library Major General Richard Hayes, Jr. (Applause) Hayes: Thanks, Ken. Clarke: Thank you for being here. Before we get started, let's explore a short history of the Illinois National Guard. Voiceover: Since before the founding of the republic, the people of Illinois have willingly and voluntarily taken up arms to defend themselves, their homes, their families, and their neighbors from enemies. They personify the concept of the citizen soldier and exemplify the values of a free people who fight when necessary to defend both their own freedoms and those of others. The genesis of the Illinois National Guard dates to 1723, when a group of civilians of the small French trading village of Fort de Chartres banded together under the French government for protection. Fifty years later Illinois militiamen would defend the fledgling United States of America when the Illinois militia helped seize British forts on both the Mississippi and Wabash rivers, securing those vital waterways for the continental army. In the war of 1812 Illinois citizen soldiers would once again face their old enemies, Britain and her allies, for control of the Great Lakes and protection of their homesteads, and prevail. In the early 19th century the Illinois militia that would one day become the Illinois National Guard defended the new republic in every major conflict the United States encountered, including the Indian Wars, the Mexican War, and the Civil War. And they fought under the leadership of men who would become some of the most celebrated political and military figures of the century. Abraham Lincoln served three enlistments, one as a captain and two as a private soldier in the Illinois militia during the Blackhawk War of the 1830s. And in 1862 as a civil war threatened to pull the United States apart, Ulysses S. Grant would take command of the 21st Illinois volunteer infantry, beginning a career trajectory that would lead him into the supreme command of all Union forces to the end of the confederacy at Appomattox and ultimately to the White House. From the battles of Cairo, Illinois and Vicksburg, Mississippi, when they helped secure control of the crucial Mississippi River for the Union to Gettysburg, to Sherman’s march to the sea, to the decisive surrender at Appomattox, the more than 250,000 Illinoisans who fought across to defend liberty were instrumental in ensuring victory for the Union. Illinois guardsmen returned home from the War Between the States with a fighting record to be proud of. Many did not return home at all. 35,000 Illinoisans fell in the Civil War. In 1897, the many Illinois units and regiments were, for the first time, called the Illinois National Guard. Their first overseas conflict took them to Cuba when the Spanish American War broke out in 1898, fighting both by land and by sea to rid the new world of the last vestige of Spanish colonial control. It was during the 19th century that the Illinois National Guard began its tradition of not only foreign enemies, but of ensuring safety, stability, and securing at home. From the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 to the Pullman strike riots of the 1880s and many other domestic threats, the Illinois National Guard has been a welcomed sight to those whose lives and well-being have been put in jeopardy. During WWI, Illinoisans served bravely on the frontlines, in the trenches, in the skies, and at seas. Numbers of Illinois's naval militias served aboard ships in the north Atlantic, helping to break the German blockade. And former Illinois cavalryman Reed Landis, after enlisting in the US army, became one of the war's first flying aces, with twelve victories under his belt by war's end. Distinguishing themselves in bloody conflicts like the Meuse Argonne Offensive, Consem Bois, and Bois du Fayel, Illinois' soldiers were there when the United States first became a major power on the world stage, with nine of them earning the Medal of Honor for their valor. Illinois would be called upon again in WWII, when the Axis powers there and to engulf Europe in blood and darkness, and when Japanese dominion over the Pacific was a terrifying and genuine possibility. Members of the Illinois National Guard played a decisive role in both the European theater, where the 106th Cavalry rescued King Leopold of Belgium, and in the Pacific theater, where Illinois guardsmen fought in the bloody island hopping campaign across the Pacific as the Allies rested control of the ocean from the Japanese. From New Caledonia to the Japanese islands themselves, Illinois national guardsmen fought in every major engagement, such as the 132nd Infantry Regiment's heroic struggle to help take Guadalcanal. They soon returned to East Asia to thwart communist North Korea's bid to control the entire Korean Peninsula. The Illinois National Guard fought to contain the communist threat across the world, as in the 1961 Berlin Airlift, when two Illinois maintenance companies and two fighter squadrons deployed to Europe to defend the German capital from the Soviets, and again during the Vietnam conflict, when the 126th Supply and Service company deployed to Vietnam. The Illinois National Guard has not just delivered defeat to our enemies overseas; it has delivered aid to those in dire straits across the world. In the 1990s the Illinois National Guard performed humanitarian missions across Latin American, providing medical and dental care to more than 5,000 civilians and peacekeeping forces and medical personnel during the Balkan Crisis for the protection of the embattled people of the former Yugoslavia. During Operation Desert Shield in the early 1990s and in the ongoing global war on terror, the Illinois National Guard again played its part, fighting in both Iraq and Afghanistan in the largest deployment of Illinois soldiers since WWII. Since the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, close to 20,000 Illinoisans have been deployed to the Middle East. Continuing in the tradition of the 33rd Division during WWI and WWII, the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team was deployed for service in Afghanistan. We honor the service of all and pay particular tribute to the memory of the thirty-four Illinois guardsmen who fell during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Now embarking on their third century of service, the men and women of the Illinois National Guard remain a crucial part of the armed forces. A scarlet thread of courage, selfless devotion, and valor link today's Illinois national guardsmen and guardswomen to their predecessors at Fort de Chartres in 1723. Throughout their history they have remained constant to the ideals of the citizen soldier, and in the future they will remain vigilant in defense of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Clarke: General Hayes, that's what you do every day. You uphold that tradition, and that is part of what many people don't know about the Illinois guard's history, but that's what your position describes. So tell me a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Hayes: Well, actually, I'm a Chicago native. I grew up in Wilmette, Illinois. Lake Street, and then we moved one time over onto Thornwood and Ridge. And I really enjoyed that. My father served in the military, my uncle served in the military, many uncles served in the military, and it was brow-beaten into me as a kid: serve your country. Doesn’t matter how you do that, but you need to serve your country. and every time I watch this video-- and it's interesting, because the history that the Pritzker Military Museum and Library put together for us--our kids coming into the National Guard today, they wouldn’t know this unless we had a chance to sit down. And it's a phenomenal lesson for them to understand why they’re serving, and what does it mean to serve in the National Guard, which is unique although we are part of the army and the air force. So I'm really proud of that. So much so, I made my coin—it was wrapped around that history. I was inspired by what was put together. It's gold, so we remember the Gold Star families. It always grounds in that. Don’t forget, you can't bring back the fallen, but you can always remember the families. But then it walks-- that history is memorialized on my coin, so thanks for Pritzker Military Museum and Library putting that together, it's special. So was here. Did not want to go to school in Illinois. It was too flat. I'm an adventurous risk-taker. And I found my way to the University of Kansas in large part 'cause I had to figure out how to pay for college myself. My father believed in teaching you the hard tools and figuring out for yourself. He taught us how to fish. He didn’t give us the fish to eat. So at the time believe it or not I got an ROTC scholarship there. And went to school there and graduated, went on active duty, and went to field artillery officer basic course. Did very well in that. And that was the tail end of when nuclear weapons, tactical nuclear weapons, were in the inventory. So I was a nuclear weapons officer in the field artillery battery. Trained how to deal with shooting tactical nuclear weapons at the time. It was a couple years later in '89. Anyways, off active duty, met my wonderful bride Danette, who's with me this evening. She saw me bounce off to my first annual training with the Kansas National Guard. And subsequent, we got married. We have three kids. Now the proud grandfather of five grandchildren, which is phenomenal, but we lived up here in Illinois, northern Illinois in Buffalo Grove for about twenty years--twenty-seven years to be exact. And when I came on to take the assignment of assistant adjutant general army, I moved down to Springfield with my wife and have been there for about five years. Clarke: What was your civilian career? Hayes: Interesting. So in high school I worked construction a couple summers, and I did the same thing in college. Why? 'Cause you can make a lot of money working in construction. And I got an affinity for construction, and I always liked science and engineering. My degree in geography, my undergrad degree interesting enough, was in computer-based geographic information systems. And if you go back to 1982, there was- - Apple computer had just come out, and I'll tell that story a little bit later. But when I graduated college, got out of active duty, I wanted to go back into what I liked. A fraternity brother and a friend in another fraternity were working for an environmental construction company cleaning up superfund sites, and they needed leaders to lead field operations. And you know, if you look at engineering and construction, and you look at military operations, there's one missing element: bombs and bullets. But it's still men, material, and equipment and synchronizing operations. So I worked in the engineering construction field the entire time. Rose to lead a large heavy civil construction firm here in Chicago before I left to go back serving in uniform fulltime. And the two careers, in the guard and working in the construct--were symbiotic 'cause it was the same thing, just applied in a different way. Clarke: How has your family dealt with you being the National Guard guy and the head of a civil engineering firm and that balance? How has that worked out? Hayes: oh, that was a rollercoaster ride at times. I know my wife's here, and she knows that all too well.it was tough at times. It was very tough. Trying to balance and finding time for all. I later in my life before I went to the US Army War College in 2005, the first class they taught us was how to balance your life. I wish I had gotten that class back in 1987. But it’s very difficult for a reservist to try to have a fulltime job, have a family, and also serve. And in many cases some of them are pursuing advanced degrees at that same time, like I did. And looking back, I wish I had not done as much as I did. But it is a real challenge, and what it just demonstrates is dedication. The dedication people put forth to not only serve in their country, but it bleeds over into the other aspects of their life as well. Clarke: How do you combat the idea that it's a just day-weekend warrior? How do you talk about that when people kind of say, "Oh, well, it's just a weekend warrior." Hayes: It's never a weekend warrior. It's 24/7. The reality is, you call it a weekend. It's formalized. So back in 1903. So the militia--let's go back to our formation, 1636 Massachusetts Bay Colony. Moved forward. We got into the Civil War. That was fought by Americans in the towns and countries with a very small continental army and obviously a small confederate army that was stood up. I would say that when we came out of the Civil War, it was pretty clear, based on the experiences of the Civil War and the Spanish American war in the late 1800s that the militias all had different equipment, different capabilities, different ways of conducting operations, different ways of training, and Congress had decided along with the war department that we need to standardize this somehow, so in 1903 they created the Dick Act. That was the name of the legislation that put that forward. And then in 1916 they formalized the training of the National Guard and also the equipping. And at that time they established the one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer. But it's never that. It’s always in between drills. You’re always improving yourself. At the end of the day, half of the nation’s combat power is in the National Guard. And if there's a bad day in this world, we have to be ready. And that's always in the back of your mind. And so the weekend is just a formal--one weekend came out as a result of the Dick Militia acts. But the reality is, you’re talking to your sections sergeants, you’re talking to your officers. It just never ends. The email traffic, now that we have email, has combated that, right, 'cause you have instantaneous access to your leadership now. You’re working pretty much every weekend. Every day you’re doing something for the military. And it just shows the dedication that the soldiers and the airmen in the National Guard, and of that matter, all the other reserve components, put in to assuring that this nation is defended properly. Clarke: You’ve risen up through the ranks. You are now in charge of one of this nation's National Guard operations. And I’ve got to believe that there are some moments in your career that stand out to you as kind of pivotal learning moments that you reflect back on and think, probably if I hadn’t done that I wouldn’t be here. Can you share one of those with me? Hayes: You know, it's kind of interesting. There’s two ways to learn in life: through your own mistakes of somebody else’s. I would say that something that underpins me is willingness to take risk, 'cause I think in the absence of willingness to take risk you can’t learn. I will tell you that I probably learned more from the bad moments than I've learned from the good ones. I’m just trying to reflect back on some of the not-so-great moments. I would say overriding everything is honesty and transparency. You have to be able to look and face right in the eye when things are going wrong and being able to find a way to address that. Even if it's your own fail and your own mistake. I've seen people struggle with that, and I think when you can tackle something head-on and acknowledge--and acknowledged fault of your own, that is where you seem to make the leap to the next greatest accomplishment, because you really focus on what's most important. And it's never about you, okay. It’s about the organization. It’s about soldiers and airmen. But I think the transformative moments from my service really rested in things that didn’t go well, but being able to just acknowledge they didn’t, and being honest about it, and running at the problem, solving the problem. There was one time I was in a one-star general officer’s office, back it was probably 2003. The most unpleasant day in my military career. A horrible organizational inspection report. And I was in his office having to explain why it was so crappy. And I didn’t have an excuse. There was no excuse whatsoever. And at that moment I thought my career was over. It was interesting, I saw him two weeks ago for the first time in probably about ten years. And I shared that moment, and he goes, "Oh, it wasn’t as bad as you portrayed it." But it inspired me to not make--try and get rid of the assumptions that we have in life. A lot of people rest a lot of their decisions on assumptions, and assumptions often go awry and get you in a lot of trouble, so try and drive to the truth and the facts, I think, is things that have endured with me, but always doing it in mind with the soldier and the airmen in mind as you make your decisions and execute what you do. Clarke: You mentioned this general. Tell me about somebody in your life who's made a big difference in the military as far as, like, a mentor or somebody who's been there for you. Hayes: That’s a great question. I wouldn’t say I have one mentor. I mean, some of my great mentors, believe it or not, are some NCOs and first sergeant or sergeant majors. I'll never forget when I got assigned to my first unit. Staff Sergeant Hanrahan was the fire direction center chief. And he came in there, and I showed up, and I'm the butterbar. The new guy, just out of basic course. And I get in there, and you have this preconceived notion you’re in charge, but I quickly realized in the first, probably, half an hour, this guy knew way more than I was ever gonna know and understand, and I formed a bond with him initially. And who had the job before me didn’t do a very good job, so their expectations of this knew guy, being me, were pretty low. Really low, along with the whole firing--all the gun sections that were out there with the Howitzers. And he watched, and he had nothing invested in me other than I was his new leader. But I watched--I was getting a lot of things thrown my way to see how I was gonna perform. But inherently I had done pretty well at the officer basic course, and I formed a really good bond with him pretty quick early on. And he taught me a lot of things of how to leverage the knowledge and the enlisted corps, and how to empower then--just set the direction and let them run. And then I think other good leaders I was around--Sergeant Major Randy Thomas, Sergeant Major Thomas Root. Good friends to this day, but they grounded me in my aspirations to--you know, I have this motto--if you’re not first, you’re last. That’s just how I approach things, but they would ground me on what's possible. And the NCOs really helped shape me. As far as officers are concerned, every leader has unique and distinct characteristic strengths and what I will call weaknesses. And I always was inspired--Patton is one of my all-time favorites. George C. Marshall, amazing leader. And I guess when I go back and think of all the history I've read and the different books I've read about different leaders, and the ones I served with, I extracted pieces of their personality or their leader that I thought were applicable. But underwriting all of that was truthfulness, transparency, loyalty, duty, honor, respect--all the things that are really inherent in the army values, but I really was inspired by leaders who had this desire to take risk, never go on anything expecting anything but to come out on top, 'cause why else are you doing it. So I've taken those things, and it shaped who I am. But I will tell you the NCO corps had a lot to do with who I am and how I got here. Clarke: When people think of the military, they often think of it as being very serious. And it's serious business, taking care of the Howitzers and things like that. It's no-nonsense business, but it isn't always serious all the time. Is there a moment in your service that you look back on and still chuckle about that you’d share with me? Hayes: Okay, so I'll tell ya the lieutenant story, right. The butterbar, and for anybody in the audience who's served, you know all about second lieutenants. 'Cause I was one of them. So I was pretty good as a lieutenant. Well, I got moved up to the executive officer of this firing battery, and we were mechanized artillery unit. 155 Howitzers. And the EXO's job is to lead the convoy of Howitzers and the ammunition supply vehicles from firing point to firing point. And we're at Fort Carson. It's really late at night, and it's dark out. And I was pretty good with a map--never really had a challenge. But we got down to this whole ravine system, and I’m on the radio, and I'm talking to the battered commander. and the battered commander typically goes forward. I said, "I'm not seeing you." I don’t see you. Normally we use chem sticks and lights to kind of mark the position. Well, the wagon went around for a while. Took me a while--finally, they just kind of grabbed me and pulled me into the firing position. So the troops, as a testament to my great leadership, got me a hat that was double billed. It was billed this way and this way. And it said, "I am their leader. Which way do they go?" there's a funny moment. Now a lot of people could take that in the wrong way, but it didn’t bother me. People make mistakes. But you know, there’s hundreds of funny small moments that are inherently shared in the camaraderie of the units you serve with. But you gotta be humble and be able to be--have a little sense of humility in what you do, because we all make mistakes. And the bottom line is being able to really look at people in light of what they are capable and what their potential is, not in what they did yesterday. So-- Clarke: That’s exactly why I asked that question. Thank you for that story. Let's get into a little bit about the National Guard, and I want to start with something very basic, ‘cause we have a lot of people who watch this show who are not military aficionados. They run into it on WTTW. And so tell me the difference between the National Guard and the army and the air force. Hayes: Okay, so let's go back to our foundation. 1636, Massachusetts. Bay Colony, but it really began in many respects before then. Well, when you just think of Jamestown, you think of everybody who immigrated to the United States early on, you had to defend yourself. You were it. The community you were in, you were it. You had to defend yourself. And that underpinning carried and transformed passed Massachusetts Bay Colony all the way up to 1776. The guard was the militia, which really the guard was America at the time. So the community defended the community. And it wasn’t until after we became a country that we had a standing continental army. And if you read the Constitution, the Constitution says we will maintain navy, and Congress will stand up armies basically when necessary. And so we had an immensely small army back in the day. So it was Americans--townsmen, militiamen, that grabbed up the arms and go to war. And we saw that in 1812, and I can go 1832 and just keep going forward to the Civil War and go to--in WWI, it changed a little bit, but the guard is the nation. It’s the communities in which we serve, the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines that joined the active component come from communities, but reality is that most of American sees their military through the guard because they’re in the comminutes, and their nested in the communities. So what is the National Guard at the time? There were militias of the several states and territories, and it's in the Constitution that every state is entitled to have a regulated militia under the command and control of the governor of the state. And that really goes back to the separations of powers that were envisioned in the debate of what the constitution of the United States would look at--the sovereignty of the state, the sovereignty of the governor, and then correspondingly having the states having the ability to have their own military force. In Illinois that's been the case ever since 1818, and in our military code every able body--and you said it earlier tonight--every able- bodied eighteen to forty-five year old, the governor can in time of emergency call that whole crew up. And that’s the unorganized militia. But for the--as far as going back to 1903, and I talked about the Dick Act and then 1916 the amendments with the Militia Act, this training, how we're gonna structure training--'cause it was only the army back there. And we did have , by the way. We did have Illinois naval militia. Many states still do. The state of New York is one for example. But that training was gonna be set by the service with which we were aligned. So in the case of the army we're gonna get our army training guides, standards, that thing from the US Army. And that--so we follow the same training standard that the army and the air force have. And to be honest with you, we're integrated. we're one team. There’s no separation. I can't say that it felt that way all the way along in our past, but we're one team. And so today, the army and the air national guard follow everything we see with our active component. But we do have a unique mission as the militia. Under the command of the governor of the state of Illinois, and at times of war when called upon, national guardsmen can revert to go under the commands of the president of the United States. The difference is we're here in the homeland to defend and protect the United States here at home and protect the state of Illinois in the case of the Illinois National Guard. And to basically call--when called upon, fight our nation’s wars. and so we have a dual mission. And the mission we perform for the governor is for the citizens of Illinois to be prepared, and we've had many natural disasters as you know, and there's many other things that we worry about, like in southern Illinois you have the New Madrid earthquake zone, Wabash Valley. Last time that earthquake went off was 1811, 1812. It was about a nine-magnitude earthquake. And if you can imagine, the soil here is so different from out in California--it was so strong, the bells in Charleston, South Carolina were ringing, and it reversed the flow of the Mississippi River, and it created a lake in Tennessee. And that's one we worry about, and we haven’t heard about it 'cause it really hasn’t done much since 1812. But there's a whole bunch of other things the guard does here at home. Pandemics. We saw the Ebola outbreak. We are prepared to deal with pandemics. So here at home as the guard we worry about those things and inherently are there to protect the citizens of the state. And at the same time training to fight our nation’s wars when called upon. Clarke: So you’re appointed by the governor. Hayes: I am appointed by the governor. Clarke: The governor is your commander in chief unless it's wartime when you go over to the president, who is commander in chief. So what do you do every day? What does an adjutant general do? It sounds like you have a lot to do, so boil it down for us a little bit. Hayes: Well, that's a tough question, 'cause every day is different. It’s a lot of responsibility. I mean, fundamentally what we do is we man, train, and equip and prepare forces for war, and we also prepare ourselves to respond for crises at war. I mean, I have 13,000 folks, and about 2,400 of them are fulltime. So the 2,400 full-timers are maintaining equipment, preparing plans, preparing orders, preparing training. We also have about 300 airmen and soldiers deployed overseas right now. I have another 350 that are getting ready to deploy overseas. There’s always activities going on. We conduct training exercises all over the world. Today we have people over in Europe conducting exercises. So we have a plethora of things going on. And then we get taskings occasionally from the department of the army or department of the air force for specific types of capabilities. We’re supporting a project of defense advanced research project agency. So we do different things every day. What do I do in my role? Try and balance all that. I have air national guard General Ron Paul running the air national guard, and I have General Mike Zerbonia running the army national guard. They have their marching orders. They kind of help run the day-to-day things. I find myself spending probably sixty percent of my time up and out. I spend a lot of time in the Pentagon. I was there this week already. I was there last week. I also involved in the state partnership program with the country of Poland and their armed forces for twenty-five years now. And so I have a responsibility to the department of defense and the department of state to maintain that mil-to-mil relationship between the Polish Armed Forces and Illinois, so my day is always about something new, but I have a phenomenal team behind me and some really dedicate soldiers and airmen to make this happen. And it's once again not one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer. It’s quite a bit more than that. Clare: So you have other TAGs, as they’re called, or the adjutant general--I've always wondered about that, 'cause the "the" is part of the TAG. And so people say the TAG. Have you ever noticed it's the The? Hayes: Yeah, you know, there’s only one, so why do we have two here? Clarke: Yeah, "The the adjutant general." Anyways--I wanted to ask you about that--but, there are other adjutant generals all around the country, they’re state-based leaders, and I'm imagining you work with them, is that correct? Hayes: Yeah, I actually know all of them. It’s interesting because I'm appointed by the . The chief of staff of the army is appointed by the president. The chairmen of the joint chiefs is appointed by the president. So the appointment of senior military officers to the most senior of the military is ta tradition that dates back our foundation. So every state and territory--fifty-four states and territories—all have an adjutant general. How they get picked, interesting enough. Vermont, the TAG is picked by the legislature, not the governor. In South Carolina you have to run for election to be TAG. There’s only a few states that have those things. In general, most of them are appointed. All of them--all of them have served on active duty at some point and served in the guard-- in some cases the guard reserve and active duty. And each state's laws dictate selection criteria. In Illinois you have to be a colonel or higher. You have to serve currently in the Illinois National Guard. So there are some restrictions placed in our own military code of the selection of the adjutant general. Other states have different rules and requirements. But they’re all amazing people in their own right. Immensely interesting backgrounds. We've got doctors, dentists, lawyers, infantrymen. And it's interesting. TAGs can either be an air national guard officer or an army National Guard officer. Right now I'd say it’s forty/sixty--forty air, sixty army. But every time, every tow years when there's an election around the country--new governor gets elected, you get a new crew. It's a constant refresh. And believe it or not--so it was 2015 I became TAG. I was the new guy. First meeting with all the--here's the new guy. And of course they made me know I was the new guy. There was twenty-two new adjutants general in 2015. Now I am probably the top one third, and it's only been a few years. It is amazing to see the turn, but all great Americans. And all have the same similar responsibilities that I do. Some though are designated a little bit. So in Wisconsin--my counterpart, Ken--Don Dunbar in Wisconsin, he's not only the TAG, he's also the state emergency manager, and he's also the state's homeland security advisor. For me I'm the TAG and I'm the deputy homeland security advisor. Some states, they’re just TAGs, so it just depends. Illinois uniquely is top fifteen in terms of size of National Guard, down to Virgin Islands is about 700. But it's an amazing group of Americans who are dedicated to the defense and protection of the citizens. Clarke: So how is it different to serve under a governor than to serve under the commander in chief of the country? Hayes: I can't speak, 'cause I haven’t served underneath the commander in chief directly. I gotta imagine it's similar. I mean, when I sat with governor Rauner, he was really clear with me--make sure the citizens of this state are protected and when I need you to be there. It was really clear, simple guidance. And as it relates to our ability to the president. At a time--we've transitioned presidents now, didn’t matter who was president, to fight our nation’s war upon. He gets briefed whenever we have things that are gonna happen, and he's fully supportive of fighting our nation’s war and participating in that, knowing that it's in the best interest of the country. Clarke: So you’ve been in for thirty-one years. Something like that. Hayes: Yeah, I had two for my ROTC time, so thirty-three. Clarke: Thirty-three years. And I'd imagine your perspective of everything has changed and grown over time. Can you describe your thought process about how your military service and your thoughts about military service have kind of progressed? Hayes: Yeah, so I'll go back to--tell a little bit about yourself. So, my father told all his kids, “You need to serve your country. Find a way to serve your country.” And to be honest with you, in high school I did not have ROTC or military service initially on my mind. My dad actually said, “If you’re not gonna go to college you can join the army by God, 'cause you're not living in my house.” And I think some parents have said that to their kids. But he was really trying to inspire me to think long. And so my first semester at University of Kansas, I did not have that ROTC scholarship. I saved up, and I applied for one, and I got it, but I didn’t really even know what I wanted to do with it when it was all said and done. When I got to my officer basic course, I'll tell you what, when you’re being taught how to fire nuclear weapons, that made life very serious. And at the time we were--you know, the peak of the Cold War, just a few years before the Berlin Wall and that whole thing. So it was very contemptuous, 'cause we were in that Reagan buildup years. But at the time we had a much larger military at that time. Much larger. And we were all oriented on fighting a highly contested kinetic fight. It’s gonna be just all-in, tanks, artillery, fast-movers, the whole thing. And then the Berlin Wall event occurred, and then the collapse of the Soviet Union—really the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. And in a matter of a few years it went from preparing for all-out war with Russia and the Soviet Union to now it's gone, and now we've got this thing called Iraq and the Middle East when we went into Desert Storm. And all that technology, all that work, all that preparation for fighting Russia, we applied it in Desert Storm, and everybody kind of saw all that technology come to life that we hadn't seen since really the Korean War. Vietnam was a counterinsurgency fight of sorts. And so we were really prepared at that time to fight those types of wars, but the world changed. The world changed. Globalization opened up. Soviet Union opened up. China opened up. And you saw a change fundamentally in social economic political landscape of globalization. And that globalization I think reduced the tension that we all saw and experienced. I mean, you think about mid-90s forward until 9/11. And 9/11 wasn’t a nation-state. That was a bunch of terrorists. And so we've enjoyed, I think, an amazingly peaceful world after the fall of the Soviet Union, even though we got in this big fight with Afghanistan and Iraq, that was a counterinsurgency against terrorists. When we got away from that, thinking about that full kinetic fight, and now I'm looking now back at that time, back in the 80s when I was in, back to today, and Russia is back to some of the same things that was going on then, and it's gotten a little more tested. What they did in Crimea, what's going on in Ukraine. China, and a lot of people are really interested to see, you know, China is a nation, but if you go back to the early 1800s, China was the big nation in the world. Big economy, largest population. So in my eyes, if you look back at history, China is not a surprise. China just kind of went on a vacation for a few years. And if you look back historically a lot of great technical innovation occurred in China. So China coming on the stage, but we’re seeing what's going on in the South China Sea and the like, and that’s obviously worrisome. And you know, Asia has just done amazing, if you go back to pre-WWII to where they are know, it's just an amazing part of the world. But you know, the United States is gonna see, maybe in the future we're not gonna be the big dog in the room anymore, and I think we need to prepare ourselves for that. So the world has dramatically changed. And then you know, you have Iran, and you have North Korea, which are unknowns. So the world going back was simple in the 80s. You had Russia to worry about. That went away. And then we've had this ISIS, Al Qaeda insurgency. Terrorists around the world. That has really driven the last twenty/twenty-five years. And now we’re entering a part the world where the balance of power is now coming into play, and demographics are driving a lot of it. So for me it's kind of in some respects feels like I’m going back full-circle. And I have not seen the world this complex in my entire military career than it is today. Clarke: Fascinating. So on this stage we had General Dempsey give Silver Stars to Illinois guardsmen. And this is back in 2012. You and I have known each other for a while, and the impact of combat on the Illinois National Guard was very fresh in the guard's mind in 2012. And now we’re 2018. How has that combat role that the guard played in Afghanistan affected the guard to today? Hayes: Oh, I'll tell you. So we’ve had over 20,000 soldiers and airmen deploy since 9/11. And granted, we have soldiers getting in and out every year. It’s a few thousand each year that come in and out. Today we have just shy of thirty percent of our forces have combat experience or served in an imminent danger zone. So we have seventy percent new faces that never had that experience. And we've seen that number go down as the years go by. We’re still deploying people, just clearly not in the same numbers that we were then. But what it did, it--I would say it woke up the guard. I'm just gonna put it that way. We have been neglected as a reserve, a strategic reserve for the army. And we were funded as such. And that was one of the decisions that were made. Fine. But you need resources to build competency and in the absence of resources it's pretty difficult to do. And what had happened after 9/11 is the army needed the guard in reserve. They had no other choice, in large part because after the Reagan buildup, in the 90s we watched army get a lot smaller, the active component especially. So when 9/11 happened there wasn’t this big active component they could turn to, so they had to turn to the guard and reserve, and when they did that pivot they're like, well, we probably didn’t invest enough. But decisions were made to invest, upgrade our equipment, upgrade our training. And today I can proudly say and very happily say, the services have given us the things that we need to do our job in line with them, but in these fifteen years we've built amazing leaders and amazing competencies that now are being transferred to the new soldiers as they come in. So it’s had a--war is horrible on all levels, 'cause nobody really wins, but we've built a much more competent National Guard today as a result of the decisions that were made back in 2000-2003. And now instead of being a strategic reserve, we're an operational reserve for the army and the air force. Clarke: You spend a lot of time with people out in the community, and I’d imagine they have a lot of questions for you. What is the most common question you get? Hayes: What is the National Guard? Are you guys the army? What is it? I think most of America really doesn’t understand it. And I talk about, we're in our communities. And we represent the fabric. Well, we don’t have armories in every city in the state here. But here's the telling story. Less than one percent of Americans serve in uniform. Well less than one percent of America. And that number is at a historical low. And what we find also is when we recruit new kids to join the service, that we're dipping in to the same pool of families, like your family, that where you had-- the service members came 'cause the father served, the uncle served, the grandfather served. And a large swath of Americans don’t have a family member that ever served. And you know, back in WWII there was fourteen million that were wearing the uniform. Now we're about two million. And so I think that’s a strategic challenge going forward, is it's kind of like a separation. We’ve got to get more of American to participate in the military. I think, you know, also the all-volunteer force that--in the early 70s, we went from a conscript army to all- volunteer and to be honest with you I think that was the best thing we could have done. The quality of the force went up. But only about twenty-five percent today of high school students have the physical aptitude and physical properties to join the military. And that is--that’s troublesome. And so I guess the other thing I think back--if you look back in WWI WWII, Vietnam, more of America was involved with the military, and it's less so today. It’s true in Congress as well. But I think we have some strategic challenges going forward if we don’t think through this and get more of America to be part of the military. Clarke: Well, before I go to my last question, is there anything that I haven’t brought up that you wanted to say during this interview that you’d like us to know about your job as TAG or your experiences in life? Hayes: Sure, so I'm gonna do a Ken Clarke moment. Clarke: (Laughs) Hayes: So Ken has been a good friend. Clarke: This wasn’t the question by the way. Hayes: Well, I know, but I've got to hijack you here a little bit here. First of all I'm honored. For all of you in the audience. This is Ken's last time, at least that I'm aware of, interviewing, and he picked me to do this night. So I'm really humbled and honored that you allowed me to--I'm your last guy on the stage. But Ken’s been here seven years, and done an amazing job, so thank you for that. Clarke: Thank you. Hayes: But over the years I've known Ken, Ken likes to text. He's a texter. And it was a Friday or Saturday night, and I get a text out of the blue. You never know what you’re gonna get. And I get this text, and I look down, and it says Ken Clarke. And why the heck is Ken Clarke texting me on a weekend evening? I hit it, and I opened it, and here's a picture. There’s Ken Clarke, got a tuxedo, looks really sharp. And right there on the left is General Mark Milley, chief of staff of the army. Right there on the right is Ryan Seacrest. And he's having dinner with them. And he goes, "Look who I'm with." And, pretty cool. I've gotten heads of statues. I've gotten all kinds of things. But Ken's been great. A great friend. And also you’ve carried for so many--you don’t realize it, but you have embodied the importance of the citizen soldier, not from the standpoint of it has to represent the guard, but it represents that our foundation is, we’ve always defended ourselves. It started with the communities, and you've carried that message better than anybody I've seen, and it's appreciated. And you can see it by the attention this library's gotten internationally. And I'm proud to call you a friend. And I look forward to you not disappearing. Yes, you’re going to Ohio, but your passion around this is infectious. It infected me. And I've gotten a much stronger love for history, and I look forward to this being the anniversary of WWI and all of the great things the Illinois guard did in WWI. So I guess I'll close with a little WWI story, and it’s gonna be about the Australians. You know, this is the hundredth anniversary of WWI. I think you know that. So Ken reached out to me last year and said, “We gotta get something done. We need a proclamation. We’ve got to be a center point for the nation on WWI." And, okay, so we got together. The governor came, met with me, Ken, and Jennifer Pritzker, and we all agreed, yep, we should be that. And then the department of defense started looking back at the history of WWI and had to decide what they were gonna pick to celebrate for 1918, which is when we really ended the war, which is really a hundred years ago this year. And when you look back at the history, Illinois's 33rd Division--infantry division and 37th Infantry, which is the first one of two, I should say, all-African American units--African American leadership and everything-- to enter the war. And when you look at what’s being highlighted about WWI, Illinois consumes about fifty percent of it. And it was those storied histories of the 33rd divisions, the 370th. In Hamel, France in 1918, the 33rd division showed up near there, and they were given to the Brits, and said, "Train these guardsmen, these national guardsmen. Show them what's going on in the trenches." And we had done training obviously in Texas. But we get there, and the Brits broke us up and said, "Hey, Australians, you take the 132nd and the 133rd infantry regiments. We’ll take the rest." So we're training with the Australians, and the Germans are preparing an offensive near Hamel. And so the division's training in that whole area there. And so we're training with the Australians. Well, this offensive became imminent and clear that it was gonna happen. And General Pershing, the commander of the American Expeditionary Force, sent word down to the Brits. No US forces will be anything other than under my command. Well, those two infantry regiments that went with the Australians--they didn’t get the memo. And what happened a couple days later is the German offensive went right into Hamel, and the Australians were responsible for that sector. And our two infantry regiments with them. And they held the line. The whole team held the line. What was interesting about it--had that line been broken, WWI would have been a completely different outcome. But for the Australians, that was the first time they ever fought side-by-side wit US, 'cause keep in mind Australia wasn’t formalized until the early 1900s. I think 1906. I can’t remember the exact date. But for them, that's the storied history of the story of the military. And this year they’re celebrating their hundredth year of what they call mate ship, about this storied history serving alongside America. And it all started with the 131st and 132nd infantry regiments of the Illinois National Guard. And you think about Illinois and the soldiers that fought in those units-- it's an amazingly proud moment. And I tell that story, and the department of defense thought that was so important, on July Fourth this year in Hamel, France, myself representing the 33rd Division of the Illinois National Guard, along with a few others, and the Australians army are gonna descend on Hamel, France with the residents of Hamel, France. We’re gonna celebrate that victory of the 131 and 132nd infantry regiment in France. Just us. Clarke: That's amazing. Hayes: It's humbling really if you think about it, but it's a testament to the courage and the bravery and the character of Illinois. And the 370th is likewise being celebrated. There’s a wonderful PBS story on the 370th. If you haven’t seen it, it's an amazing story. Good, bad, and ugly, as I call it, but that was transformative inside the army to get beyond--a little adjunct to that. So 33rd goes down to Texas. 370th goes down to Texas. And they wanted us to march through the town there in Texas with the division, but they wouldn’t let the 370th, the African Americans--no, you can’t do that. Division Commander George Bell said, " I'm not marching if they’re not marching." And they said, "No, you can't march." And commander George Bell said, "I'm marching anyway." And they rolled through the town. That was a telling story to cultural diversity. And it's come a long way. But I look at the military service. It doesn’t matter who you are, what your background, sexual orientation. It doesn’t matter. You’re serving. But that was a turning point in many respects, and it started in the guard. And so there's a lot of proud history, you know, and it emanates back here on the south side. 39th and King Drive, you’ve got that wonderful monument highlighting that. But those are some stories that are here in Illinois that are somewhat captured in there that are much deeper stories about Illinoisans and their defense of this nation, and I’m really proud to be the thirty-ninth adjutant general. It's kind of humbling when you look back at all the leaders who came before you. You know, Ulysses S. Grant was in the Illinois National Guard. Abraham Lincoln. I mean, you go down a litany of these leaders, and here I am in charge of the whole thing. It’s pretty humbling. But it's been amazing, and I get up every morning and try to do the best job I can every day. Clarke: The reason that I wore the 33rd colors here today on my lapel is that history, that Illinois guard history that just was so instrumental in our victory in France in WWI and then beyond. I want to thank you for being here today and being part of this last interview that I'm doing for the Pritzker Military Museum and Library. And I want to thank you for your service. Hayes: Thanks, Ken. Clarke: And keep on doing the great job you’re doing, and thank you very much. Hayes: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. (Applause) Clarke: Thank you to Major General Richard Hayes Jr. for an outstanding discussion and to the Illinois National Guard for partnering with the Museum and Library on this program. To learn more about the Illinois National Guard, visit il.ngb.army.mil. To learn more about the Pritzker Military Museum and Library, visit in person or online at PritzkerMilitary.org. Thank you, and please join us next time on Pritzker Military Presents. Voiceover: Visit the Pritzker Military Museum and Library in downtown Chicago. Explore original exhibits on military history, or be a part of a live studio audience. Watch other episodes of Pritzker Military Presents; find out What's On at PritzkerMilitary.org. (Theme music) Voiceover: Pritzker Military Presents is made possible by members of the Pritzker Military Museum and Library and its sponsors. The views and opinions expressed in this program are not necessarily those of the Museum and Library. (Theme music) Voiceover: The preceding program was produced by the Pritzker Military Museum and Library.