ARLINGTON, Va. - The National Guard has a twofold mission: to serve the United States at home and overseas and, for Guard members, taking care of their communities is part of that local mission.
Friday, and throughout the week, Guard units across the country celebrated Earth Day and performed activities to support the beautification of their communities.
Following up on a successful 2010 campaign that included more than 120 events across the country, the Guard is doing it again in full force with Guard the Environment Week, April 16 to 24. GTE Week is a grassroots effort aimed at increasing participation in environmentally friendly activities within communities.
Activities scheduled for Friday and throughout the week included community projects such as park clean-ups, highway litter pick-ups and tree planting.
The Arizona National Guard's Earth Day event had about 500 children from local area schools and more than 400 Soldiers and their families in attendance, said Dorenda Coleman, sustainability coordinator for the Arizona Army National Guard.
Coleman said Arizona's festival-like event included environmental vendors, animal presentations, arts and crafts with recycled materials, Earth Day games and puzzles, as well as military displays including a UH-60 Black Hawk and an F-16 Fighting Falcon cockpit simulator.
This week was not the only time the Guard will be green. Both the Army and Air Guard have initiatives either in place or planned to execute environmentally-friendly practices for daily operations.
The Air National Guard has focused on a new initiative called Green and Sustainable Remediation, which complies with the Air Force's environmental restoration and pollution prevention programs, said Richard McCoy, an environmental restoration technical advisor for the National Guard Bureau.
The Army National Guard has new sustainability initiatives lined up this year, in addition to their current environmental programs.
Army Maj. Gen. Raymond Carpenter, acting director of the Army National Guard, signed the Army Guard's first ever sustainability policy in January.
This policy communicates to the states' Guard units the Army Guard leadership's recognition of a critical operational need to embrace practices that will better sustain the limited natural, cultural and economic resources entrusted to us by the American public, said Army Lt. Col. Joseph Knott, special assistant to the logistics directorate for sustainability and energy.
The Army Guard's sustainability policy directs the states' adjutants general to incorporate sustainability goals and objectives into their state plans. These goals include reducing fossil fuel use and greenhouse gases, conserving water and increasing our reliance on renewable energy, Knott said.
Earth Day began in 1970 as a way to teach citizens of the world the importance of taking care of the planet we inhabit, and the Guard has observed this day since it began.