Quote:
Originally Posted by goober
I don't know how old you are, but back then the National Guard was the connected man's Canada. Of the 55,000 killed in Vietnam, 100 were National Guard.
Bush got into the Guard, and by all accounts was a pretty dedicated Guardsman, serving in the Champagne Squadron, with the son of the Texas Governor, the son of a Texas Senator and several members of the Dallas Cowboys, (what are the odds of that). He had a good deal.
Then the US went to a lottery system, ask any guy whose in his 50's, he'll tell you his number, and Bush's draft number came up 336, suddenly the National Guard wasn't that great a deal, if he had stayed out of the Guard he would be free and clear, but now he still owed the guard all this time (not a very good deal), so he got a bad attitude and stopped going.
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Goober, the problem was based on a policy set by Johnson and nixon not to use national guard units in wartime conflicts, not the mumbo jumbo you just stated. It was not just the 147th Fighter Group, but all NG units. If they were called to active Duty, it was generally Europe or Southeast asia in support roles outside the conflict. The Johnson policy was different from WWI, WWII, and Korea, which included NG units in wartime conflicts. Today, the armed forces use the "Total Force Doctrine."