Chairman’s Corner: Happy Birthday National Guard

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2010 — As Amer­i­cans pre­pare to cel­e­brate and give thanks amidst the hus­tle and bus­tle of the hol­i­day sea­son, I’d like to take a moment to rec­og­nize the 374th birth­day of the Nation­al Guard and our Cit­i­zen-War­riors: those sta­tioned through­out our Nation and those deployed across the globe.

Through­out your long and dis­tin­guished his­to­ry, you have been a unique yet vital part of our Total Force, con­tin­u­al­ly embody­ing your mot­to: Always Ready, Always There. From the front lines of the Amer­i­can Rev­o­lu­tion to the shad­ow of the Hin­du Kush, you have come from every state and ter­ri­to­ry, stand­ing shoul­der-to-shoul­der and fly­ing wingtip-to-wingtip with your broth­ers and sis­ters in arms. 

The Guard’s con­tri­bu­tions to our tra­di­tion­al mil­i­tary roles are vital, but the skill sets you bring to the fight are equal­ly indis­pen­si­ble. From the State Part­ner­ship Pro­gram that con­ducts out­reach to more than 40 part­ner nations to Agri­cul­ture Devel­op­ment Teams help­ing farm­ers in Afghanistan … when­ev­er our Nation has called, the Nation­al Guard has answered. 

Of course, these unique capa­bil­i­ties are only pos­si­ble because of the very real ser­vice pro­vid­ed by those who sup­port each mem­ber of the Nation­al Guard. For every Cit­i­zen-War­rior who serves, there is a fam­i­ly, an employ­er and a com­mu­ni­ty who must also make sac­ri­fices. Togeth­er, you demon­strate one of our country’s great­est attrib­ut­es: the shared sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty and com­mit­ment that has enabled our Nation to meets its great­est chal­lenges through­out our history. 

On behalf of the Joint Chiefs, I thank the Nation­al Guard and its sup­port­ing com­mu­ni­ties for 374 years of ser­vice. Hap­py Birthday! 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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