12.14.04
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATIONAL GUARD
As the National Guard celebrates its 368th birthday
today, its members are focused more closely on homeland defense than the four
Massachusetts militia units that stood up on Dec. 13, 1638, might ever have
imagined.
Army Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, called the
Guard's role supporting the war on terror, homeland defense and homeland
security a case of "back to the future," but with a sophisticated twist.
It's a role Blum said the Guard is eminently suited for, because it's already
forward deployed nationwide, in every state and territory, "where people live,
work, worship, play and go to school."
"We come from the homeland," Blum said. "We have our units dispersed all over
the country in 3,500 different locations. You can't drive 25 miles in any
direction in a populated area without running into a National Guard armory."
This, Blum said, makes the National Guard "your first military responders" to
any emergency. "If something goes wrong, it is always going to be local," he
said. "Even 9/11 was very local — although it became a national event very
quickly. But it was very local to Manhattan, very local to the Pentagon, and
very local to the field in Pennsylvania."
During those attacks, Blum said the National Guard demonstrated the same
"Minuteman" response exhibited by its forefathers in the fledgling
Massachusetts militia, who defended their settlement and colony against attack.
Within 24 hours of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Blum said, 8,600 members of the
New York National Guard responded to the World Trade Center site, most without
military orders. "They didn't get mobilized. They didn't go to mobilization
stations. They went right to the problem and started dealing with it —
restoring confidence and security, reducing suffering and saving lives and
property," he said.
Blum said a similar situation played out at the Pentagon, where the first
military responders from outside the Pentagon were members of the District of
Columbia, Maryland and Virginia National Guards.
In addition, the Air National Guard flew 90 percent of the first 400 combat air
patrols flown over every major city in the United States within the first 24
hours of the attack, he said.
In more than three years since the attacks, Blum said the Air National Guard
continues to fly 90 percent of the county's air combat missions in defense of
the homeland.
"How can you call yourself something like the National Guard and not take the
defense of the nation as your mission No. 1?" Blum said. "This is our No. 1
priority, our No. 1 focus, our No. 1 mission."
Blum said the Guard provides "tremendous capabilities" to U.S. Northern
Command, including situational awareness capabilities, intelligence and
information feeds, and chemical-biological and weapons of mass destruction
response force packages as needed. Guard members also provide a forward-
deployed command and control apparatus and joint logistics base in every U.S.
state and territory, he said.
As part of this expanded role, the Guard has established standing, joint-force
headquarters in every state and territory to coordinate military plans and
responses to terrorist acts, Blum said. These elements aim "to detect, defeat
and deter terrorist acts — and if that fails, to respond in an appropriate
fashion," Blum said.
As it transforms itself to better meet the country's future homeland defense
requirements, Blum said, the National Guard is playing a critical role in
missions its forefathers in the Massachusetts colony probably never envisioned:
national defense overseas.
Some 100,000 citizen-soldiers and –airmen are deployed overseas in 44
countries, Blum said, and they make up 34 percent of the U.S. force in Iraq.
"So we're not only defending the nation here at home, but we defend the nation
in depth overseas," supporting combatant commanders worldwide, he noted.
After 368 years, Blum said the National Guard has built a strong legacy and
proven that it's "always ready and is always there" — be it in Boston Harbor,
Yorktown, or in Kabul or Baghdad.
"That's been our legacy since Day 1," Blum said. "When did they ever call the
Guard up that they didn't show? And when they showed up, when did they not get
the job done?"
