The Iowa National Guard’s adjutant general says this is a pivotal moment of evolution for the organization, with construction on new facilities and more soldiers joining its ranks.

Major General Steve Osborn today said the Iowa Guard has had recruiting success and is authorized to add dozens of new positions in 2025. “I am proud to say that the Iowa National Guard ended Fiscal Year 2024 with 99.5% assigned strength and an 83% retention rate, one of the highest in the nation,” Osborn said.

The 137 new positions are for combat engineers as well as soldiers who’ll work in cyber security and field artillery. Osborn delivered the annual “Condition of the Guard” address at the Iowa Capitol today. Afterwards, he met with reportes and discussed plans to rebuild a runway at Sioux City’s airport. It’s where Air Guard planes carrying massive amounts of fuel take off to resupply military aircraft in mid-flight.

“In 2003, the Air Force made a determination to go from F-16 fighters at that airbase to KC-135 tankers, so they knew at that point…we’re going to need a new runway in the future,” Osborn said. “Because of the size of those aircraft, it needs a bigger, thicker, heavier allowing runway.”

The FAA has notified officials the runway has about two more years of unrestricted use in its current condition and after that it will be too dangerous for the aircraft and crews to use it. Osborn indicated the FAA is likely to supply some of the funds for rebuilding the runway. The total project cost: $95 million.

“We’ve been working with the National Guard Bureau, we’ve been working with the Air Force and we’ve been working with our elected officials to get the money for this. We received $13 million last year for design, which we think is positive step,” Osborn said. “It’s all been approved, we’re just working now on getting the actual funding.”

Osborn told reporters commercial traffic will not be disrupted at the Sioux Gateway Airport as the Air Guard’s runway is rebuilt. The Air Guard’s refueling wing will operate at a nearby air base in Omaha or Topeka, Kansas during the project.

Osborn presented state legislators with two key policy proposals today as well. He’s asking legislators to adjust Iowa’s new law on chronic absenteeism. About 400 17- and 18-year-old high schoolers who’ve enlisted in the Iowa Guard are being counted as absent from school when they travel for required screening.

“We’re speaking for the military as a whole in Iowa. Any young person — young man or young women who wants to join the military is going to have to take a day off of school to come to Des Moines to take the test and the physical — not just the Iowa Guard, but everybody,” Osborn said. “We’re just trying to add that into the exemption of that law.”

Osborn is also seeking changes in Iowa National Guard Service Scholarships. He proposes that soldiers seeking a professional certificate or credential as well as those getting a college degree be eligible for the state-funded scholarships.

“We’re really focused on the STEM related fields and the trades related fields for short credentially and certificate programs that allow our people to use that source,” Osborn said.

In May, a $24 million training facility will open in West Des Moines that will be used by the Guard as well as the West Des Moines Fire Department. Later this year, there will be a groundbreaking in Sioux City for a new $14 million, federally-funded, Army National Guard maintenance facility.

Nearly 9000 men and women serve in the Iowa Army National Guard and the Iowa National Air Guard. Seven hundred soldiers and airmen were deployed in 2024 to a variety of missions, including responding to Iowa natural disasters and assisting authorities at the U-S/Mexico border.

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