Happy Birthday National Guard

National Guard celebrates its 368th birthday today

:hb4nedt

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2004 - 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."
http://www.military.com/NewContent/0..._Guard,00.html