Reply #5: I was in the Air National Gaurd in a unit that had a 24/7 refueling

[patrice]

mission. I was in for over 10 years and at that time you could quit after 10 if you wanted to, don't think that's true anymore. Also when I enlisted in the Gaurd it was more exclusively under the governor's control, but something about that changed around Desert Storm. My unit was activated, but I never went to the MidEast and then I quit shortly after Desert Storm was over. I heard after that that the command structure of GAurd and Reserve became even more centralized, and less under the governors' control. I think it's pretty interesting too that even if the Federal government doesn't take your Gaurd troops, it can still take quite a bit of Gaurd equipment. Governor Sebelius was complaining about this in the press a few months ago.

I joined, like so many others, for training (you could get a gauranteed job in those days, something else I don't think is true anymore despite what the commercials say) and educational benefits. Being a child of the '60s I had to settle with myself about getting into wars in foreign countries. I decided the Gaurd was different; it was more for defense of the home soil and that was something I didn't have a problem with. If some country invaded us, I would want to fight them. Desert Storm came along and put the lie to that. I knew it was because of a treaty we were in with Kuwait, but I couldn't understand what we were doing fighting for such a degenerate country. Our status as mercenaries for Oil Royalty is clearer to me now.