Ashland attorney Ernest M. Pitt Jr. is an excellent choice as the new Area 4 director for the Kentucky Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. Pitt knows first hand the essential role National Guard and Reserve units play in today’s military and how the support of civilian employers is critical for both the National Guard and the Reserve to maintain the manpower they need to do their increasingly important jobs.
Area 4 corresponds with Kentucky’s fourth congressional district represented by Republican Geoff Davis.
Pitt retired as a colonel after 30 years in the in U.S. Army and Army Reserve. He knows what it is like to put his civilian career as an attorney on hold to serve on active duty in the military. So do many other area members of the National Guard and the Reserve. At one time members of the National Guard and the Reserve were called “weekend soldiers” who surrendered one weekend a month and a couple of weeks in the summer for military training. Their chances of actually being called into active duty for an expanded period of time were slim.
But the role of the National Guard and Reserve began to increase with the advent of the all-volunteer military, and since the 1980s, Guard and Reserve units have been called into active duty in every military conflict. Pitt himself was called into active duty during the first Gulf War, and during the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, nearly every single member of the National Guard and Reserve has been called into active duty. Some have been called more than once.
That, of course, has placed an added strain on their civilian employees. Many civilian employees either have had to operate short-handed or temporarily hire replacements for employees called into active duty. Members of the Guard and Reserve are guaranteed positions with their civilian employers when their tours of duty have ended.
Some employers are reluctant to hire members of the Guard or Reserve because the risk of losing their service if they are called into active duty, yet still having to keep a position open for them upon their return. One of Pitt’s tasks in his new position will be to convince employers to hire members of the Guard and Reserve despite the risk of losing them for extended periods of time. One way of doing that is convincing employers of how they are helping their country achieve its military objectives by allowing their employees to serve.
If anyone can convince a reluctant employer to support employees who serve in the Guard and the Reserve, it is Ernie Pitt. He knows from decades of experience that today’s members of the Guard and Reserve are a lot more than just “weekend soldiers.”
Editorials
Excellent choice — 10/31/09
Ernie Pitt is well suited as advocate for Guard, Reserves
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Earmarks again?
Immediately, following the midterm elections of 2010 which saw Republicans regain control of the House of Representatives and capture seats in the U.S. Senate, Republican leaders in Congress announced they had heard the voice of the voters and vowed to cease using “earmarks,” the name given to appropriations slipped into bills by influential legislators without a vote.
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Best in the nation
It may surprise many readers that Newsweek’s “best high school in America” is located right here in Kentucky and is open to selected students throughout the state, but then the Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green is hardly your typical high school. In fact, it would be impossible for even the best public high schools to emulate the amazing success of students at the Gatton Academy.
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After the vote
We offer today a few reflections on the messages voters sent in Tuesday’s primary election in Kentucky.
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A mild winter
As we approach the Memorial Day weekend, long hailed as the unofficial start of the summer vacation season, we pause to reflect upon the winter that wasn’t.
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Devices banned
Emergency breathing devices that tests have proven unreliable are being phased out under a directive issued by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. However, MSHA has given mine operators more than 18 months to remove all the air packs from underground mines.
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A free weekend
In an effort to promote increased recreational use of the two lakes in the Daniel Boone National Forest, the U.S. Forest Service will offer free fishing and boating during the first weekend in June.
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Ho-hum election
Psst! Want to know a secret? There’s a primary election Tuesday. And it’s right here in Kentucky! However, there has been so little interest in this election, that Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, the state’s top election official, is predicting that only betwixen 10 and 12 percent of the state’s eligible voters will take the time to go to the polls tomorrow.
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A real rush job
By giving first reading approval to two identical ordinances creating the Northeast Regional Jail Authority, elected leaders in Boyd and Carter counties are reviving a 30-year-old political issue — only this time with different results.
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KCTC leads way
The ability of Kentucky to compete with other states and the rest of the world for the good jobs of tomorrow keeps improving by degrees.
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Slow decline?
Louisville’s Churchill Downs is seeing its shortest spring meets since 1975, and some owners, trainers and breeders fear they could get even shorter. That is unless the Kentucky General Assembly has a change of heart and gives the home of the Kentucky Derby the option of increasing its nonracing revenue by offering new forms of gambling.
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Earmarks again?




