Task force 1-194 is working the evacuation of State Department and military personnel from Afghanistan this week. That unit is a National Guard unit from Minnesota. It’s on-site at Karzai International airport in Kabul, at the heart of the action. General Craig McKinley (USAF ret.) is former Chief of the National Guard Bureau and former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On this episode, he explains the Guard's role in Afghanistan, Iraq, other overseas operations, and deployments here at home.

Photo: Air Force Gen. Craig R. McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bureau, right, and Army Capt. Shannon Dean Holiday, commander for Multi-National Task Force East, Thunder Bravo battery, walk the streets of downtown Pristina, Kosovo, during a presence patrol with the Missouri Army National Guard. The Guard Soldiers patrol one of the more populated areas of the American NATO peacekeeping missions in Kosovo.