CAMP VICTORY, Iraq - The National Guard turned 371 on Dec. 13, and the occasion was not forgotten at Camp Victory, Iraq. At the Al-Faw Palace a ceremony was held to commemorate the event.
The event featured keynote speakers including Maj. Gen. Harold Cross, the adjutant general for Mississippi, and Brig. Gen. Mike Nevin, commander of the 177th Military Police Brigade, Michigan Army National Guard. Also in attendance were Soldiers from the oldest National Guard unit, 1st Battalion, 181st Infantry Regiment who trace their lineage back to Dec. 13, 1636, as well as the youngest unit, the 193rd Brigade Liaison Battalion, which was activated in June.
"Before there was a country, our forebears volunteered to defend, protect and serve their homes and communities," Nevin said. "Since then, a lot of things have changed. The equipment, the uniforms, the tactics, the doctrine, it all continues to change and constantly get better. But the people have not changed."
Cross spoke about the history of the Guard.
"On this date, in the Massachusetts Bay colony the governor of Massachusetts called forth those that would be brave enough to pick up a weapon and accouter themselves in some sort of uniform to provide security," Cross said. "It started a long tradition in what is now the United States of America to call on that courage, call on that small percentage, that real infinitesimal number of people in the population, that had courage to stand up to a threat but would also come back and have character and peace. These we now call our Citizen-Soldiers."
Quoting John F. Kennedy and Thomas Paine, among others, and invoking the can-do spirit of famed National Guardsman Teddy Roosevelt at one point, Cross praised the sacrifice of the modern-day "Minutemen," and said that today the Guard has a unique role both at home and abroad.
"Today 15 governors have called forth their National Guard to fight an ice storm in the Midwest, to fight fires in the West, to be on alert along the southwesternn border. With the 23,000 National Guardsmen in Iraq and the over 30,000 that are in CENTCOM, that still leaves plenty of National Guardsmen back home for the protection of our homeland," Cross said.
The ceremony was capped off when members of the oldest and youngest National Guard units were joined by the oldest and youngest National Guard servicemembers in attendance, and cut the birthday cake with a saber, celebrating year 371 for the Guard and looking toward the future.