National Guard Birthday
This is Steven Petrick Posting.
Today is the birthday of the National Guard. The National Guard has served in all of our wars since its founding, and its heredity pre-dates even the birth of the nation, descended as it is from the original militia forces formed for local defense of the colonies.
Many of you may not be aware that National Guard Troops have been at the forefront of some of our most critical combat operations. For example, on D-Day the beaches that were stormed by the Big Red One (First Infantry Division) were also stormed by the Blue and the Gray (the 29th Infantry Division, a National Guard unit seeing action for the first time). The green, untried, guardsmen held their own alongside the veteran and battle hardened soldiers and leadership of the regular division, pushing forward and not giving up in the wrack and ruin that was Omaha beach.
It was the various militia companies, some standing and some created during that period, that carried the weight of the Civil War on both sides. The regulars were there too, but the total contribution of the regular U.S. Army during the entire Civil War was less than a single corps all told in the Union Army (the regulars provided many officers in Confederate service, but no Regular Army unit went over to the Confederacy).
In all of our conflicts, from the founding of the country to the present, the citizen soldier (militiaman or guardsmen) has been at the forefront of the battle. Whether marching into the Philippines to suppress the insurrection, marching south in pursuit of Pancho Villa, pressing the Kaiser's legions back towards Germany, or Kim Il-Sung's and Mao Tse-tung's hordes back north of Seoul, or Saddam's troops out of Kuwait, the National Guard has been there.
Today is the birthday of the National Guard. The National Guard has served in all of our wars since its founding, and its heredity pre-dates even the birth of the nation, descended as it is from the original militia forces formed for local defense of the colonies.
Many of you may not be aware that National Guard Troops have been at the forefront of some of our most critical combat operations. For example, on D-Day the beaches that were stormed by the Big Red One (First Infantry Division) were also stormed by the Blue and the Gray (the 29th Infantry Division, a National Guard unit seeing action for the first time). The green, untried, guardsmen held their own alongside the veteran and battle hardened soldiers and leadership of the regular division, pushing forward and not giving up in the wrack and ruin that was Omaha beach.
It was the various militia companies, some standing and some created during that period, that carried the weight of the Civil War on both sides. The regulars were there too, but the total contribution of the regular U.S. Army during the entire Civil War was less than a single corps all told in the Union Army (the regulars provided many officers in Confederate service, but no Regular Army unit went over to the Confederacy).
In all of our conflicts, from the founding of the country to the present, the citizen soldier (militiaman or guardsmen) has been at the forefront of the battle. Whether marching into the Philippines to suppress the insurrection, marching south in pursuit of Pancho Villa, pressing the Kaiser's legions back towards Germany, or Kim Il-Sung's and Mao Tse-tung's hordes back north of Seoul, or Saddam's troops out of Kuwait, the National Guard has been there.
posted by Federation Commander at 2:13 PM
<< Home