Show Guard Commander Challenges Critics Capt Vearl H R Tucker Corn Com mander of Co A Vernal Utah today chaL chal- hinged assertions made recent recent- recently ly in national publications that the National Guard is poorly lee led and prepared ill-prepared to perform its missions We have in the Guard the best reserve force this country has ever owned declared Capt Tucker and an statement to the contrary is simply untrue GUARD ACCOMPLISHMENTS Capt Tucker cited recent statements by top US military leaders and offered a lengthy list of Guard accomplishments to lo prove his point Item The Army and Air National Guard together will send officers and enlisted men to Active Army Army- Air Force technical schools this year Another are enroll enroll- enrolled ed cd in extension courses and an additional are arc enroll enroll- enrolled ed cd in officer candidate schools Item Every new enlistee in inthe inthe the Guard receives four months or more of training at atan atan an Active training center to give him the same basic pre for hi his job that career soldiers and airmen receive Item Guard training time has been boosted to a new minimum of hours an- an annually annually in the last few years years from a former minimum of hours Even this tells only a apart apart part of the story declared Ca Capt pI Tucker because the majority of units and individual Guards Guards- Guardsmen men exceed the minimum by bya a wide margin habitually de- de devoting devoting voting hours per year to their training tasks Item The Guard has virtual ly eliminated the old evening drill and has shifted its em- em emphasis em to full weekends enabling ing it tu to travel to areas where realistic outdoor can be given Item The Guard patterns its training after that of the Act lye ive Army Air Force and andis andis is measured by the same crit eria Officer appointments and promotions in addition are governed by Force standards with the Active mil mu- nary establishment wielding full authority to accept or reo re any individual who fails to meet those standards LOCAL UNIT HAS DEPTH What most citizens see the Guard doing is only the tip of the iceberg declared the locaL commander lie He described the local unit its leadership and its training to illustrate his point In Co A we have an with nearly 20 years of military ary service lie served seven years in the active Army in actual combat during World War II and again in Korea He wears the Combat Infantry Infantry- mans Badge and hIS has a wide range of military experience One of the Officers of the unit recently completed the Continued on page pase 8 Guard Critic Continued from page 1 school where he earned the highest score in his training company of men in the combat proficiency training Out of reservists call call- called called ed to active duty during the Berlin Crisis the 1st of the unit was one ne of 50 reservists i picked from the group to spend a 2 week tour in Germany SUMMER PROJECTS For the past several years this unit spent its Summer Camp actually building roads bridges clearing trees and con con- conducting ducting demolition projects that are useful and provide realistic and useful training to its members For example The unit constructed feet of road installing 6 culverts for a pass bypass road into the Alta Ski area in September 1965 In 1966 we cleared the for est st for and constructed 2 2 miles of of road into a Boy BoyScout BoyScout Scout Camp amp in the East fork of f the Bear River Last year further improve improve- improvement ment of this road plus 5 miles of pioneer road for the highway being constructed through the the Chalk Creek area project project was our We feel that we serve a use use- useful ful purpose in our state and that the work we do is a mono mon ment to our worth In the spring of 1965 memo mem- hers bers of the unit donated their own time In helping to alleviate the flood conditions on Ashley Creek Translate our training ache ache- dule into normal eight hour workdays and you'll find that Guardsmen put in the ent of 40 to 50 normal work days each year Cap Capt Tucker averred a respect able amount of time for men who are making livings livings or going to school REACHING FAR DUTY Most Americans see Guards Guards- Guardsmen men gathering at the armory air base on a Saturday morn morn- and know that they train but most of them dont don't know just how extensive that training is s nor how effective it is or how far afield it occasionally takes us he declared lIe He gave some specifics Guard Air Commandos have a thriving civic action pro gram going deep in the Pan ama jungle where they pro pro- provide vide medical aid and other as as- as assistance to primitive tribes duro dur- during Ing annual summer training ses ses- sessions Hundreds of Army Guards Guards- Guardsmen Guardsmen men fly to Alaska each each year for 40 below training in Arctic fighting Air Guardsmen fly ov ov- ov overseas hauling cargo flights to Vietnam South America Eur Eur- Eur Europe ope and elsewhere Guards Guards- Guardsmen men man nearly hall half of the NIKE HERCULES missile sites and provide nearly 50 per cent of the te jet fighter forces which guard North America against air attack The Army Air Defense Command recently handed out the years year's E awards for com com- combat bat proficiency and National Guard units won eleven against eight for the A Active tive Army Army Capt Tucker pointed out This kind of perl performance rn is routine for the Guard but its it's the part of the iceberg that doesn't often come to light he stated why we resent com com- comments ments in national publications that were we're not up to par FAST MOBILIZATION priority Army Guard units can mobilize put a final polish to their training and be ready for overseas shipment in three months or less where it used to require 8 to 12 months he explained The best military minds in inthis inthis this country say that the Guard Guardis GuardIs is trained better led better better led and doing its job better than any reserve force in our history he said Secretary McNamara tried to shift all units of the Army and Air Force Reserve over to the Guard three years ago and when he ran into al opposition he then tried to assign all the combat and corn com bat support units to the Guard There could only be one reason for what he attempted to todo todo do lie He gave the problem de de- de detailed tailed study and he decided hed he'd get the best management management and best units from the Guard We in the Guard dont don't set ourselves up as being above im im- im improvement provement or above criticism but were we're doing our best to tomake tomake make improvements aU all the time and when were we're ed we want the to be based on facts not on some writers writer's imagination or person person-I person person- personal al prejudice Capt Tucker con eluded |