JoeB131
Diamond Member
Again, this is written by someone who knows very little about the National Guard.
There is no AWOL in the National Guard. You cannot be charged under the UCMJ for AWOL for not attending drills. The fact the people who wrote this don't understand this VERY BASIC element of how the Reserve Components work makes anything else they write suspect.
The first problem here is that these records are incomplete, because most records are destroyed after a certain period.
Let's look at this fucking ignorant statement.
What is now the Air Force started out as a branch of the US Army, and the Army National Guard included an “air forces” component. When the Air Force became a separate component of the US Armed Forces, National Guard organizations insisted that the Air Force include an “Air National Guard” component. Initially, ANG was considered little more than a publicly funded” flying club for ex-WWII pilots”, and regarded as “flying storage” by the active duty military establishment.[4]. Unlike the Army National Guard, ANG made little sense insofar as fighter and bomber pilots (and the infrastructure that supported them) were not terribly useful if a governor had to declare a state of emergency. ANG was (and is), in practical terms, a redundant organization which duplicates the function of the Air Force Reserves.
Wow, this is fucking ignorant. For instance, during the Gulf War, most IL Air Guard units were activated and deployed to support the effort. Meanwhile, only five Army guard units were activated. (Transportation and MP companies). More on point, four Air Guard units WERE deployed to Vietnam.
Air National Guard F-100s in South Vietnam
In 1968, four Air National Guard (ANG) F-100 squadrons deployed to Southeast Asia to provide close air support for friendly troops in South Vietnam. The first was the Colorado ANG 120th Tactical
www.nationalmuseum.af.mil
Let's address this little nugget of shit.
To address malingering by the privileged draft dodgers in places like Bush’s TXANG, in 1969 the Department of Defense instituted a new policy, inducting those who failed to “fulfill their duty” for involuntary active duty for up to 24 months. The DoD, and the Air Force, were going to be taking a tougher line with those who failed to “satisfactorily participate” as members of the US Armed Forces.
Um, yeah, about that. This was a shitty deal if you were an enlisted man. but if you had ever served, you'd know there's a whole different set of rules for officers. God, the shit I saw officers get away with.
Here was the reality of the Guard in the mid-Seventies. Once the draft ended, most of the guys who joined the guard (and yes, getting into the Guard was a desired alternative to Active Duty) left in droves, and the Pentagon started to rethink the structure of the Guard as a supplement.
So let's talk about what this bullshit with fake documents and people misreading spotty records was ACTUALLY about.
John Fucking Kerry, a guy the Democrats never should have nominated, was passing himself off as a war hero. He was running away from his days as an anti-war protestor like it was his ex-wife who didn't have any money. Then a lot of Vietnam Vets, including guys he served with, started raising a stink about being called baby killers.
Well, what do you do if you are the liberal media? You rehash old stories about Bush and the National Guard that already had been largely debunked in 2000. And when a crazy Lt. Colonel in the Texas guard handed Mary Mapes fake documents, she and Danny-boi at it up.