Clarification on National Guard deployments…

In my LewRockwell.com article on the California fires, I quoted a Christian Science Monitor article, which said,

It has long been at the bottom of the military food chain, receiving fewer Army hand-me-downs than it needs because it has typically been a reserve – the last to fight.

A reader sent me this clarification:

Dear John,

I enjoyed your article “Government Fiddles While California Burns” very much. And I generally agree with almost all you said.

The one bone I would pick with you, and it comes up with many who write against the war in Iraq, is the discussion of the equipment of the National Guard. The fact is that the National Guard is a Federal reserve military force in every regard. The paychecks for training are Federal checks, the Guardsmen are earning credit toward a Federal retirement whenever they are on duty for the Federal government, which includes all inactive duty for training and all active duty. Only duty on a state call-up is not included or paid for by the Federal government. Likewise, all of their equipment, large and small, is Federally-owned and issued to them by the Federal government. Only the armory they drill in is state-owned and even that may have been subsidized by the Federal government.

I speak as a retired Army officer with service on active duty in Viet-Nam (another unjustified war), reserve service in the Army Reserves, and eight years in the Louisiana and Minnesota Army National Guards.

We may oppose the war in Iraq, as well we should, but we should not criticize the deployment of the National Guard. We must remember, “Who pays the piper calls the tune.”

Sincerely,

Cam

Camden W. McConnell, SE

Senior Structural Engineer

TranSystems

180 Grand Avenue, Suite 400

Oakland, CA 94612

Thanks, Cam, for the clarification.

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