So can we close the border now?

[TheCorinthian]

Hi,

 

BT and TheC, can you guys stop insulting each other please? The constant bickering is getting fairly annoying.

 

Sanuk!

 

 

Ok. :evil:

[dave32]

 

I thought the National Guard was a part time military set up in each state. I also thought these are regular working people with jobs and families, usually ex military men and women who served a tour of duty, and to be used only in emergencies under the orders of the state's Governor.

 

I doubt they can be used as a full time border patrol. It's not their function is it?

 

 

The wonderful Bush dynasty took deployments of the National Guard as combat troops to a new level. There were (are) a lot of those guys in Iraq and Afghanistan, which makes me confused about the difference between them and the Army Reserve?

 

Flash... please explain.

[Central Scrutinizer]

A close friend of my father's (childhood buddy) was in the Army Reserve (may have been the Seabees, can't remember now), mainly for the extra paycheck. Oops! He ended up being called up in the late 60's and sent to Vietnam for a year's duty. He wasn't a happy camper. The day he left VN his Quonset hut/barracks was mortared by the VC and all his buddies were killed. Lucky man.

[Flashermac]

 

I thought the National Guard was a part time military set up in each state. I also thought these are regular working people with jobs and families' date=' usually ex military men and women who served a tour of duty, and to be used only in emergencies under the orders of the state's Governor.

 

I doubt they can be used as a full time border patrol. It's not their function is it?

 

[/quote']

 

 

 

 

The wonderful Bush dynasty took deployments of the National Guard as combat troops to a new level. There were (are) a lot of those guys in Iraq and Afghanistan, which makes me confused about the difference between them and the Army Reserve?

 

Flash... please explain.

 

 

The NG are under the state governors - except when called to national service, which is happening now. The Army Reserve is actually a part of the Army. The Guard is sort of an outgrowth of the old militia system, although far better trained and more effective. The Guard can be called on by the governor to act in state emergencies, which the Army Reserve cannot.

 

In WWI, WWII and Korea the NGs were among the first to go. My father was in a nationalised NG battery in WWII. But for political reasons, the NGs and very few Army reserve units went to South Vietnam. (I can think of only one unit - an artillery battery from the Kentucky - that went at the very beginning.) In the VN War days we say NG meant "not going" and ER meant "exit running".

 

Not any more though. It's back to the old system. Plenty of NG and reserve units have been called up. There is still political influence though. In Desert Shield - Desert Storm, I was told our local NG engineer battalion was notified it was being called to federal service. Its LTC was a contractor who would stand to lose a lot of money if he had to go on active duty. He pulled some strings and the next day his battalion was told to stand down. A battalion with no pull got sent instead.

 

So many NG units have been sent to Iraq or Afganistan that the guard can't help out in their own states, as happened in Louisiana a few years ago.

 

 

[cavanami]

We had NG from Puerto Rico on some of the ships I sailed on. At the port in Kuwait, there is a large US base there and several NG units stationed there.

The served for many months, some even for over a year. Not happy campers.

After 9/11 quite of few of my friends in the Navy Reserves got called up to active duty and they were active for many months also!