Oregon National Guard opens hangar doors to state workforce leaders

SALEM, Ore. – The Oregon National Guard joined the state’s workforce development community in a new way this fall, hosting the opening reception for the Oregon Workforce Partnership’s WORKing Together Conference at Army Aviation Support Facility #1 in Salem on Oct. 19, 2026, and supporting the conference itself the following day at the Salem Convention Center.

The annual conference brings together business leaders, educators, public agencies, community organizations, elected officials and workforce professionals from across Oregon. This year marked the first time the Oregon National Guard took part directly. Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve has staffed a booth at the event for several years, but Guard recruiters and Soldiers had not previously been part of it.

“The concept was that we want all the employers and people here to know this is what Guard support looks like,” said Lt. Col. Charles Patzner, who led event planning for the Oregon National Guard. “If you need an event and you need a resource to help you, we’re here.”

The partnership grew out of the Guard’s long-running work with career and technical education programs. The Oregon National Guard has supported SkillsUSA since 2012, hosting events at Camp Withycombe, and its labor summits have connected Soldiers with many of the same employers and educators who attend the conference.

Those relationships led to a request for help with Ready2Respond, an immersive summer camp under the Team Oregon Build initiative that links disaster readiness to careers in the skilled trades, culinary arts, communications and emergency management. When final funding for the June 2026 event arrived about 30 days before it began, organizers reached out to the Guard for food service equipment, tent setup and training support. Soldiers from the 1249th Engineer Battalion provided a mobile kitchen, and 12 Soldiers from the 82nd Troop Command Brigade helped more than 130 high school students and 35 educators build 10 shelters during the five-day camp.

That success brought an invitation to the fall conference. Brig. Gen. Russell Gibson, Oregon’s assistant adjutant general, saw the evening reception as an opportunity to bring the Guard’s labor summit model to a new audience and offered the Salem aviation hangar as the venue.

“He said, ‘This sounds like a little mini labor summit,’” Patzner said. “Can we just do a mini labor summit on the 19th of October as a reception event? And there it was.”

Guests arrived at Hangar 1 as the sun set through its open doors, touring aircraft and equipment displays and meeting Soldiers. Gibson welcomed attendees on behalf of the Oregon National Guard, and the evening program included remarks from state Rep. Dacia Grayber. Students and staff from career and technical education programs, including Siletz High School, Dayton High School and the Salem Career Technical Education Center, also took part.

Gibson also made a direct appeal to the community. The Oregon Army National Guard is about 1,200 Soldiers short of its strength goal, he told attendees, and the Guard needs Oregonians’ help to close that gap.

That message carried into the conference the next day, where Oregon Guard recruiters staffed an information booth and Soldiers helped run the event, serving as session monitors in the breakout rooms. Patzner took part in the breakout session “When Disaster Strikes, Who Shows Up? Preparing Oregon Youth for Careers in Disaster Response, Recovery, and Skilled Trades,” which shared lessons from Ready2Respond. One of the shelters built by students during the camp was on display at the convention center.

Sgt. 1st Class Duane Reno, a recruiter with the Oregon Army National Guard Recruiting and Retention Battalion in Salem, said many of the people who stopped by the booth were community partners and educators, including career and technical education groups from Portland and other parts of the state whose schools may not have a strong connection to the Guard.

“Every single person who’s coming to this event sees a Soldier, and we’re able to clarify for them that we’re Oregon Guardsmen,” Reno said. “We’re people who live here and we serve here. We do this a couple of days a month and two to three weeks a year.”

Reno said the conversations gave recruiters a chance to correct common misunderstandings about Guard service. “It’s a great opportunity for us to dispel some myths they may have had about service, what that looks like, and how they can be a better version of themselves through service in the Oregon Army National Guard,” he said.

Patzner said the larger goal is to work Guard units into community planning from the start, rather than showing up with a single piece of equipment at someone else’s event. Soldiers have training requirements to meet regardless, he said, and community projects can help meet them.

“Instead of just driving around Camp Rilea to get your driver’s training, part of the training you build into your plan could be moving something, or showing high school students how a driver does their job in the National Guard,” he said. “It’s a win-win, because the Soldiers have to train anyway.”

He said the event introduced employers and educators to the Guard’s facilities, capabilities and people, and opened the door to lasting relationships.

“All we have to do is get ourselves plugged into these committees and planning groups,” Patzner said. “This is it. These are the people that do that around the state.”

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