ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - He enlisted in 1949 and retired in 1985, but 21 years after hanging up his uniform, retired Maj. Gen. Lewis Stephens has not finished serving the National Guard or savoring the company of Minutemen.
So Stephens joined 2,500 other members of the National Guard Association of the United States (NGAUS) for its 128th General Conference here Sept. 16-18.
He said the imperative of educating others about the nation’s oldest fighting force – a National Guard he cannot walk away from – attracted him to the conference.
NGAUS was created in 1878 with the goal of obtaining better equipment and training by petitioning Congress for more resources, the same mission it has today. Nearly 45,000 current and former officers are members.
Stephens said conference opportunities for self-development attracted him, as did the camaraderie and the ability for retirees to speak up for the National Guard.
But here’s the bottom line for this former commander of the 49th Armor Division in Texas: “I’m in payback mode. Payback because of what the military has done for me and my life since 1949.”
The annual event offers a smorgasbord of entertainment, ceremonies, speeches, professional development sessions and social functions. This year it featured a new song about the National Guard performed by Pat Boone.
Scheduled for New Orleans this year, it was moved to New Mexico because of the damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina. The New Mexico National Guard and the state received repeated kudos for organizing a successful conference on short notice. NGAUS officials talked about a future return to Louisiana.
George Brock came because of duty. The retired Army colonel who served in Vietnam and whose 27-year career included five joint assignments before they were fashionable, is chief of Plans and Policy at the National Guard Bureau in Arlington, Va.
Brock was one of many Guard Bureau officials who came to provide briefings, answer questions and continue professional development.
He listed the reasons he believed colleagues attend: “Camaraderie. Seeing old friends again. Pride in the home unit, home state. The exhibitors are something of an attraction. Maybe a few people come because they’re attracted by keynote speakers.”
About 500 defense-related exhibitors competed for the attention of attendees inside and outside Albuquerque’s cavernous convention center. Guard exhibitors included the Youth ChalleNGe Program, the Army National Guard’s new Decade of Health initiative, and Counterdrug. Defense contractors showed off a full-size section of a new helicopter, a Bradley A20DS and other vehicles.
Institutions such as Bellevue University, Columbia College and Colorado Technical University boasted of the continuing education opportunities they offer Citizen-Soldiers and Airmen.
Computer products, hydration systems, knives, gun sights, challenge coins and uniforms were on display.
In short, the convention center was a one-stop shop for all things National Guard.
“It’s important for the family to get together once a year,” Brig. Gen. Robert Taylor, chairman of the NGAUS board of directors, said during a break between sessions. The convention center’s corridors reverberated with a hundred conversations between Guard leaders and colleagues.
What stood out to Taylor this year?
“I still think there’s a disconnect between the credibility of the active component and the National Guard,” he said. “We have to continue educating, especially the active component. We’re performing to the Army standards, and we’re doing the heavy lifting for the Army.”
With more than a half-century of exposure to the Guard, Stephens, the retired Texas general who enlisted shortly after World War II, said he was struck by how busy the Guard is and by how vital it has become.
“How intensely engaged the Guard is as a part of the total Army,” Stephens observed. “I really buy off on this business of us being an operational force. I’m optimistic about the future of the Guard. We have excellent leadership at the highest levels, and I see it scattered throughout the states.”
Attendees heard two Citizen-Soldiers and an Airman talk about their frontline experiences in Iraq. They cheered for Pat Boone, 72, a surprise guest who introduced a new ballad honoring the Guard and who promised the profits would go to paralyzed veterans. The song is titled “For My Country: Ballad of the National Guard.”
They watched Native Americans dance and shook hands with Navajo code talkers.
Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, commanding general, First U.S. Army, told attendees that Soldiers are sheepdogs who are vital to the continued health of the society they protect. Gen. Duncan McNabb, commander, Air Mobility Command, talked about America’s unrivaled global reach, about how a U.S. Air Force or Air National Guard asset takes off every 90 seconds to 2 minutes, depending on the operations tempo, every day of the year.
“It is, in fact, one of the nation’s crown jewels,” he said. “Nobody else in the world can do it.”
Donald Kale was a private in 1952 and a colonel when he retired in 1989 from the New Jersey National Guard. Like so many others, Kale keeps on giving, currently developing a militia museum near Lawrenceville, N.J., to preserve the Guard’s history and sell the force to future generations.
The National Guard Empowerment Act, which might give the force a bigger voice at the highest levels of the Department of Defense, was on Kale’s mind, as it was for many attendees. “A lot of members here have put their e-mails in [to elected representatives],” he said. “I know I have.”
Kale viewed the conference as a means of pushing the Guard forward in the minds of the public and its elected officials.
“Right now, it’s a large force and the Army’s depending on it,” he said. “The Guard’s out front. Everybody realizes what the Guard is now.”
Perhaps that was the most striking thing in Albuquerque – the pride in the eyes and voices of retirees and senior leaders, the way they talked about the men and women they have led or still lead.