"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
Subject: Countering Widespread Ignorance About the National Guard
From: "Rick Folkers"

Now Art, were there people in the guard who got in through favors? I am
sure there were just as favors are pulled daily in any activity that
government is involved in. Just as some people in WWII got false
deferments
or pulled strings to get plush assignments. Were there cowards in the
NG?
I am sure. We tried to run them off. But you know what, there were
cowards
in the Army Air Corps in WWII, but we don't paint all the vets with that
broad brush.

Art, it is time you admitted you know nothing about the current military
or
National Guard and ask instead of castigating and revealing your vast
ignorance. You would a much better chance of being taken seriously if
you
acted like you were actually learning once in a while.

I retired after a 26 year career with the active army, the National
Guard,
and the Army Reserve. I remain just as proud of my time with the Guard
and
Reserves as with the Army in Vietnam. But I try to live in the current
age
and keep learning rather than rest on my laurels. You could try the
same.



I was originally talking bout WW II and many high sbchool kids who went
for
the guard and Reserves to delay serving their country.

What utter bull****. One more time, Kramer--the Guard was mobilized in its
entirety by federal order over a YEAR before Pearl Harbor. There was no
local Guard unit for them to join after mobilization was completed in early
spring 1941--all of the units were on active duty, where they would remain
through 1945. Meaning those Guardsmen served one hell of a lot longer than
you did. None of the above is "opinion"--it is all cold, hard facts,
something you obviously are completely ignorant of.

My words have since
been twisted and distorted out of all recognition.

Bull**** again. Your words have been fed back at you verbatim--you were
wrong when you claimed, and I quote (from 21 FEB, AGAIN):

"Back then the reserve and the guard were pathetic jokes and laughing stocks
for all of us. As I have said before, if you want to go to war, then go to
war and don't hand us this reserve or National Guard stuff. Tell a member of
the 101st fighting for his life at Bastogne what a great job the reserve is
doing to defend our country sitting in the USA nice and safe while he may
not live to see the end of this day."

Those Guardsmen were hardly "pathetic jokes and laughing stocks"; when they
were mobilized en mass they immediately doubled the size of the active Army
on duty in 1940. Few of those Guardsmen were "nice and safe" while Bastogne
was going on--in fact, it was a National Guard outfit (120th Inf Rgt, 30th
Inf Div) that your sister B-26 unit (322nd BG, IIRC) mistakenly bombed
during the Battle of the Bulge, killing a number of them at Malmedy. Other
Guardsmen were (hopefully) finishing their fourth year in confinement as
POW's of the Japanese--"hopefully" because a lot of them did not survive the
Bataan Death March. They were in their third year of that unimaginable
misery while you were still debating with yourself about asking Sally Ann
out to the school dance. More Guardsmen served as spearhead assault units in
various amphibious operations, including your personal favorite, Normandy,
where the 116th Inf Rgt of the Virginia National Guard made the town of
Bedford famous for suffering the loss of almost an entire generation of her
young men during a few short hours on that sixth day of June in 1944.

If in 1943 you went into the
guard you were held in contempt as someone who wanted to avoid serving
his
country,

Complete and utter bull**** again. THERE WAS NO NATIONAL GUARD FOR THEM TO
JOIN IN 1943! It had been serving in federal service for over two years at
that point. Do you just make this crap up as you go along?

And that is the way it was back then and nothing said here can change
that.

Especially the (gasp!) facts, right? You are utterly clueless, and even more
amazing, you refuse to check into the actual history of the US mobilization
effort, where you would find that yes indeed, all of the Guard units were
long gone from Fort Livingroom long before 1943.

I never said that once in the guard the guard did not serve well. My
grievance was only with those who hid in the guard hoping they would never
be
called. The jokes on them.

You are an idiot. Hopefully those poor misguided soul who have been clinging
to the idea that you might have some sort of historical value are reading
this latest evidence of your complete and utter lack of touch with reality
(either then or now) and joining the evidently growing number of folks who
have figured you out for what you really are.

Brooks




Arthur Kramer