"Kevin Brooks" wrote in message
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During the Vietnam War, National Guard troops stayed in the US
and were only activated for natural disasters and riot control.


That's not correct. On May 13, 1968, 12,234 Army National Guardsmen
in
20
units from 17 states were mobilized for service during the Vietnam
War.
Eight units deployed to Vietnam. One of them, Company D (Ranger),
151st
Infantry, Indiana National Guard, earned distinction as one of the
most
highly decorated combat units of the war.

On January 25, 1968, eight ANG Tactical Fighter Squadrons and three
Tactical
Reconnaissance Squadrons were mobilized. A second callup on April
11
added
two Tactical Fighter Squadrons and an Aeromedical Airlift Squadron.
Four of
the fighter squadrons served in combat in Vietnam, flying F-100Cs.


Thanks.

Were those the only Guardsmen deployed in Vietnam. IF so,
T\that would mean that less than 5% of the troops who
served the US in Vietnam were activated National Guard. I
(also) don't know how many Guardsnmen there were in the US
but I will be careful in the future to say that _almost_
no guardsmen were deployed in Vietnam.

President Johnson called up the Guard and Reserves right after the USS
Pueblo was captured by the North Koreans in January 1968. While he
emphatically stated that the National Guard would not be sent to Viet
Nam,
this was only partially true. The unit flags stayed in the US and the
men
were sent to Viet Nam as replacements. In my Brigade ( the 69th Inf,
mostly
from Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska), 65% of the enlisted men and 95% of the
Officers were sent to Viet Nam. Thirty-seven members of the 69th were
KIA
while serving in RVN. The number of wounded is not even mentioned.

Interesting; I had thought the guys out of the Hawaii ARNG brigade were
the
only ones who went through that kind of treatment. Incidents like your's
were a sore point in the relationship between the ARNG and active Army for
a
long time. But FYI, a number of ARNG units, complete with flags, were
indeed
deployed to Vietnam under that same mobilization effort. As another poster
has already mentioned, the INARNG's D-51st Inf Co (Ranger) was one, and a
few arty battalions and some CS/CSS units also made the trip. IIRC an arty
unit from the KYARNG was involved in a rather close fight when its
firebase
came under attack. And IIRC those KIA's you mention were not included in
the
ARNG KIA total for the war, since they were considered active component
individual fillers when they became casualties; ISTR the deployed Guard
units suffered just under one hundred KIA during their period in country.

Brooks


Thanks, I didn't know that about the deployed intact units. Someone posted
somewhere else that 5700 of the dead in Viet Nam were National Guard. That
seems a bit high and probably refers to NG casualties. It would be easy
enough to check because in those days your serial number was prefixed with
NG and everyone knew where you came from when you had to deal with
personnel.