{"id":10772,"date":"2025-08-22T16:38:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T16:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/?p=10772"},"modified":"2025-08-26T16:44:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T16:44:01","slug":"boss-lift-event-gives-employers-a-firsthand-look-at-the-maryland-national-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/2025\/08\/22\/boss-lift-event-gives-employers-a-firsthand-look-at-the-maryland-national-guard\/","title":{"rendered":"Boss Lift event gives employers a firsthand look at the Maryland National Guard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Maj. Benjamin Hughes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MIDDLE RIVER, Md. – Employers got a firsthand look at the duties and skills of their employees who serve in the Maryland National Guard during the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Boss Lift event at Warfield Air National Guard Base and Blum Military Reservation, August 22, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The day-long event enabled 70 employers to experience what citizen-Soldiers and citizen-Airmen do during their military training and gain a deeper understanding of the Maryland National Guard’s mission and capabilities.

\u201cWe are happy to welcome you to our Boss Lift because you already invested in understanding the Guard and Reserve members you employ and demonstrated your commitment to care,\u201d said Birckhead during her opening remarks. \u201cThank you for your critical role in safeguarding our state and our nation\u2019s security.\u201d
After a safety brief, employers took orientation flights on UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters flown by Maryland Army National Guard Soldiers with the 29th Combat Aviation Brigade and observed the training sorties of the Maryland Air National Guard\u2019s 104th Fighter Squadron A-10C Thunderbolt II aircraft.

Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller called her first flight on a Black Hawk helicopter \u201cunforgettable\u201d as she saw Guard members in action throughout the day.

\u201cWhat motivated me to be here at Boss Lift is that I wanted to learn more about the men and women who serve in the Maryland National Guard,\u201d said Miller. \u201cThey have this dual capacity of service that they\u2019re providing to the state of Maryland as military members and civilian employees, and I wanted to learn more about that.\u201d

The employers were able to ride in up-armored vehicles, shoot on a virtual range, and observe live-fire weapons training with Soldiers at Blum Military Reservation. With the Airmen from the 175th Wing, they sat in an A-10 simulator, learned about cyber operations, and watched demonstrations of emerging technology like a 3-D concrete printer and a robot dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Baltimore County Police Chief Rob McCullough, who began his career in the Maryland National Guard in 1984, said his experience shaped why he recruits service members from the Guard and Reserve.
\u201cPeople who have been in the military definitely bring discipline to the workplace,\u201d said McCullough. \u201cMost importantly, they are taught to do the next job above them. Even at the basic level, they make great supervisors and great employees, so everyone should have members of the Maryland National Guard.\u201d

Employers learned about the re-employment rights of the military reservists after training, deployments, or other tours of duty during a briefing from the ESGR, a Department of Defense office.
\u201cWhen the men and women come back from doing their duty and service, they become elevated employees,\u201d Miller said. \u201cWhen it comes to management, leadership, teamwork\u2014you name it\u2014that\u2019s what they bring back to their place of employment. I think it\u2019s a win-win for employers, but also for the people of Maryland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


At the end of the event, employers had the opportunity to sign an ESGR Statement of Support pledging to provide a supportive work environment for employees who serve in the National Guard and Reserve.
\u201cWe\u2019re so grateful for these terrific, patriotic men and women,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThey bring the best of themselves not only to our state of Maryland and our nation, but to your workplaces as well. Bringing these patriots into your workplace is your service right back to the state of Maryland and to our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

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By Maj. Benjamin Hughes MIDDLE RIVER, Md. – Employers got a firsthand look at the duties and skills of their employees who serve in the Maryland National Guard during the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Boss Lift event at Warfield Air National Guard Base and Blum Military Reservation, August 22, 2025. The day-long  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":10785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10772"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10792,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10772\/revisions\/10792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}