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STAND-TO! Edition: Monday, November 28 2011

Today's Focus:

Guard Earth - Geographic Mapping Analysis Tool

Senior Leaders are Saying

We're fighting for one thing -- balance in everything we do.

- Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, emphasizes that Army is focused on maintaining an equilibrium at all costs, while fielding questions during an interview with the Northwest Guardian newspaper, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., Nov. 16, 2011.

VCSA seeks budget balance for Army

What They're Saying

I was Sergeant Miller, but after the accident, it's like who am I now? Getting into Paralympic sport is something that helped me to see other people through difficult times and guide me -- it also let me feel I was accomplishing things for myself. Sport has really helped a lot.

- Kari L. Miller, nine-year Army veteran and Paralympic silver medalist and trainer, reinforces the value of adaptive reconditioning sports program to the healing process of wounded, ill and injured warriors, at the Army Warrior Transition Command sponsored multiservice sitting volleyball tournament at the Pentagon Athletic Center, Nov. 22, 2011.

WTC hosts sitting volleyball tourney at Pentagon

A Culture of Engagement

Today's Focus

Guard Earth - Geographic Mapping Analysis Tool

What is it?

Guard Earth is a web-based Recruiting and Retention (R&R) Geographic Information System (GIS) used by the Army National Guard (ARNG). This application fuses leads, accessions, facilities, events, and locations with populations, demographics, and additional statistics. Users can view maps of recruiting areas, schools, employers, key demographics, and other data crucial to the recruiting mission. With Guard Earth, state leaders can monitor their Recruiting and Retention Commands (RRCs) and strategically allocate recruiting resources. Similar to Google Earth, Guard Earth is a leading edge 3-dimensional graphical view of the ARNG facility-and-community footprint.

What has the Army National Guard done?

The Guard Earth team of Soldiers and contractors operates and maintains the systems that house the data and the applications. The team trains new users, troubleshoots issues, and maintains the user database. Primary users include recruiters, noncommissioned officer in charge (NCOICs) and regional readiness commands (RRCs).

Other uses of Guard Earth include information and training sessions for the RRCs, unit composition data for family programs and activities, actual strength data for the Total Army Analysis (TAA) 12-17 project, and support for ARNG suicide prevention programs.

Why is this important to the Army National Guard?

With Guard Earth, recruiters are better able to offer recruits assignments near their homes or schools. Leaders can use Guard Earth information when making decisions regarding unit mission, recruiting capability, and sustainability. This tool also has the ability to identify areas of a state more capable of sustaining a highly desired (high demand) or low density (low supply) skill set.

Guard Earth demonstrates the demographic makeup of an area around an armory including the diversity of that geographic area with searchable criteria such as rank, skill area, and gender. With recruiting data and demographic information, the ARNG can determine whether it is serving local communities, and how effectively recruiters are meeting their missions in particular areas.

What is planned for the future?

As the ARNG improves the Guard Earth system and explores new uses for the available data, the data sets collected will naturally become more diverse and the delivery methods will continue to evolve. This tool plays a pivotal role in the R&R field and has a potential role for many other uses. Guard Earth will continue to provide diverse data collection and mapping capabilities for delivering business intelligence and information to internal and external data consumers.


Guard Earth
Army National Guard
