Not Just For Sandbags Anymore

Not Just For Sandbags Anymore - Pioneer Press columnist Nick Coleman has noticed that sometimes the National Guard has to be soldiers:

"The Minnesota National Guard is seeing a lot of action these days. Maybe too much. Instead of sandbags, the unspoken undercurrent, in wartime, is about body bags.

I always drop by the National Guard booth at the Fair in the hopes of seeing an old friend or just to take the pulse of things. I've developed a lot of appreciation for the Guard over the years from watching it work through flood or tornado. But the National Guard is being asked to do a lot more than help out in the Red River Valley or St. Peter. More than at any time in the last 50 years, members of the National Guard are under fire."

Perhaps over those fifty years Mr. Coleman never noticed this, but It's A Military Force! The National Guard is Part Of the US Army and Air Force! They exist to Go Places And Kill People when called upon!

With nearly a quarter of the Minnesota Army and Air Guards either overseas or on deck for deployment, Coleman does note a key problem:

Almost 1,100 Minnesota Guard soldiers are en route to Bosnia, where they will take over the lead role in peacekeeping efforts. Another 500 are on their way to Europe to beef up security at U.S. air bases, and 1,000 more will head to Kosovo this fall. Add smaller deployments to Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf (almost 200 are in Iraq and Kuwait) and you will have a quarter of the Minnesota Guard — 3,000 men and women — overseas. For some members of the Air Guard's 133rd Airlift Wing who are being redeployed to the Persian Gulf, it will be their third overseas assignment in less than two years.

Although morale is strong in general, it has begun to suffer in the 133rd Airlift Wing.

"I don't think their morale is very good right now, and mine wouldn't be, either," says Col. Denny Shields of the Minnesota Guard. "Frankly, we're concerned. Because when you keep going to the well, more and more you get midterm people — people who have 10 or 12 years' experience — who might end up pulling the plug. That's a lot of experience to waste, and we really hope it won't happen."

It's a fair point; Guard and Air Guard units that have much needed skills - like the 507th Chemical Recon Company from Fergus Falls, or the 133rd Airlift Wing - are going to find themselves on tap for a lot of duty time. The military relies especially hard on them for their technical skills, the sorts of things where the Guard's long-term part-timers with ample civilian-world experience are invaluable.

But Coleman concludes:

High school kids thinking about joining the Guard are weighing the college aid they would receive against the chance they'd be called to fight and die for their country.

It ain't just about filling sandbags anymore.

In my hometown, the National Guard company had fought in the Spanish American War, WWI, WWII (Guadalcanal, New Guinea, the Philippines, and a solid year of occupation duty in Japan) and Korea. I don't know that many of us contemplating a hitch in the Guard had any illusions about spending a career filling sandbags.

Are kids today any dumber?

After 9/11, I doubt it.

Posted by Mitch at August 22, 2003 10:50 AM