The National Guard is our
nation's primary military reserve, ready to deploy quickly anywhere in
the world to defend our country. The highly-trained men and women of the
Guard are also available to serve under the command of the nation's
governors during state emergencies. Over 500,000 private citizens across
the country dedicate one weekend each month and two weeks each year during
peacetime to train with their units. In true minuteman tradition, they
are ready to answer the time-honored call to duty. Sen. Leahy is the co-chair of
the U.S. Senate National Guard Caucus, an informal, yet influential, group
of more than 80 U.S. senators dedicated to promoting a strong,
ready National Guard.
Sen. Leahy has been honored to receive awards for
his efforts to support the National Guard, including the George
Washington Award from the Adjutants General of the United
States, the Eagle Award from the Enlisted Association of the National
Guard, and the Harry S. Truman Award from the National Guard Association
of the United States.
Since Vermonters first sent Sen. Leahy to the Senate over 25 years ago,
he has
made working on National Guard issues a top priority. Vermont has a long
citizen-soldier tradition that goes back to the nation's founding, when
Ethan Allen and the Green Mountains
Boys fought valiantly to take
Ticonderoga and helped guarantee our independence. Today, the Vermont
National Guard numbers around 4000 proud men and women, divided between
the Army and Air National Guards. Vermont, with its 600,000 people,
represents one of the highest Guard per capita participation rates of any
state in the country.
Even before the September 11 attacks, the Vermont National Guard proved
itself an asset to the state and the entire country. Vermonters have
played key roles in both World Wars, Korea, and Desert Storm. Since the
end of the Cold War, the nation's defense strategy has come to rely more and more
on National Guard forces because of their cost effectiveness and
flexibility. The Vermont Air National Guard recently served in Saudi
Arabia, providing air cover over Iraq, while various units of the Vermont
Army Guard have sent personnel to Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and other areas across the globe.
The Air Guard Over New York
There is no better example of the strength, quality, and dedication
of today's Green Mountain Boys than the Vermont National Guard's
magnificent response to the September 11 attacks. Soon after the news
of the attacks, the 158th Fighter Wing scrambled many of
their F-16 fighter jets based at the Burlington International Airport.
Over the next 122 days, at least two of the units’ 15 advanced
warplanes provided continuous air patrol over Washington, D.C., and New
York City. No Air Force unit did more than this 1000-person force to
reestablish control over our skies after that awful day. It was an
impressive record-setting achievement.
The Air Force has recognized the tremendous experience of the 158th
Fighter Wing of the Vermont Air National Guard, tapping the unit to
cover a 24-hour alert site at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina.
Launching from this base, the Vermont Air National Guard can
intercept suspicious aircraft across the South. This mission is very
similar to the alert duty that the Vermont Air Guard carried out in
Charleston, South Carolina for many years during the latter parts of
the Cold War.
Vermont Guard patrolling skies
above New York City
after September 11, 2001
Based on the advice and experience of the Vermont Air National
Guard in its patrols of New York's airspace, Sen. Leahy secured funds for major
technology upgrades to the F-16. He included $55 million to install a
combat datalink and a so-called Advanced Identification Friend-or-Foe
system that allows pilots to read the transponders of other aircraft.
Advanced IFF sorts out the wheat from the chaff, leaving only
significant information for the pilots to analyze. Whether called to
patrol at home or abroad, the Vermont Air Guard and the entire F-16
inventory of the Air National Guard will be even more capable the next
time they take to the skies.
Vermont Guard in Afghanistan and Iraq
The Vermont National Guard has made substantial contribution to the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Green Mountain Boys have
sacrificed their civilian careers, precious family time, and—in some cases—their lives.
From late 2002, dozens of members of the
Vermont National Guard Mountain Warfare School and Mountain
Battalion--two of the U.S. Army’s most unique units which provide a cadre of soldier who can fight effectively at extremely high
elevations—deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan to help train the new Afghan
Army. A professional Afghan force, subordinate to civilian leadership,
is essential to avoid allowing the nation to slip into its anarchic past and to
allow it to grow healthily. Vermonters are instilling basic soldier
skills and, more importantly, a broader understanding of how a military
should interact with a larger civilian society. These efforts are truly
making the U.S. safer, and Sen. Leahy is very proud to display in his front office
in Washington, DC an American flag that these proud Vermonters flew over
their base in Kabul on September 11, 2003.
Members of the Vermont Army
National Guard have also gone to Iraq to help provide security for the
country’s struggling democracy to develop. In February, the 1st Field
Artillery Battalion (Forward) of Vermont’s 86th Armored Brigade
deployed to Afghanistan. Almost 200 well-trained, dedicated, and skilled Green Mountain
Boys will be in Iraq for up to a year, giving that war-ravaged nation a
chance to move out of its dark past.
Several months later, 24 members of
the 42nd Military Police Company from Northfield deployed to Iraq as
well. Well over 200 men and women from the Vermont Air National Guard
also deployed to the Persian Gulf in late-June and early July. The F-16s
of the Vermont Air National Guard will fly patrols over Iraq and across
the Middle East. In recent years, hundreds of Vermont Air and National
Guard and Reserve members have served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Iraq remains an extremely dangerous place, and, very sadly and
tragically, 25 members of the Vermont Army National have
been killed carrying out their mission. Many other Vermonters have been wounded there as well. Vermont
has some of the highest casualties per capita than any other state in
the country. The Vermont National Guard is truly one of the gems of the
United States military, always ready to sacrifice—sometimes to the
greatest extreme—to contribute to nation’s military efforts.
Sen. Leahy is proud to fight for the Vermont National Guard, because
the Guard embodies the spirit of service that has always been a hallmark of
Vermonters.
Mountains
Boys fought valiantly to take
Ticonderoga and helped guarantee our independence. Today, the Vermont
National Guard numbers around 4000 proud men and women, divided between
the Army and Air National Guards. Vermont, with its 600,000 people,
represents one of the highest Guard per capita participation rates of any
state in the country.
