GO Guard!

Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, was speaking to an audience of journalists when he rattled off several amazing facts, including, "..133 Army National Guard helicopters were responsible for saving 17,443 people's lives. "I'm not talking about moved, I'm talking about saved," he emphasized, "taken from deep water where they were going to drown to dry spaces where they were going to live." He also made these points: -About 75,000 National Guardsmen are in 40 different countries. -The National Guard made up half of the combat force in Iraq. -The Guard took over the entire mission in Bosnia, Herzegovia, Kosovo, the counter-terror missions in the Horn of Africa and the peacekeeping missions in the Sinai. -Before Hurrican Katrina landed, 8,500 Guardsmen were in place to respond. LTG Blum admits that they were not nearly enough. Eventually, 42,000 soldiers from the 54 National Guards (ie all of them) took part in the rescue, relief, and rebuild missions around Hurrican Katrina. -133 National Guard helicopters and crews were responsible for saving 17, 443 people from drowning (not just transporting them, but saving them from rising waters). -When Katrina made landfall, Guardsmen were fighting floods in New Hampshire, Vermont and fighting forest fires in Idaho and Montana, blizzard conditions in North Dakota, securing the southwest borders of the United States and guarding critical infrastructure in New York. -About one of every two Guardsmen were activated for duty in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in the Katrina ravaged south. The term "Weekend Warrior" just doesn't apply anymore. Hat Tip: Black Five Link: Dept. of Defense