Advice for President Obama on Restoring the National Guard!

Max's advice for February 26, 2009

Dear President Obama,

Max grew up as the son of a man who knew 'ALL' the answers to the problems of the world. Max's father said so! Many times, his father let everyone know that anyone who didn't know that he had the answers was a turkey or a knucklehead.

The famous Ma Bell, the second most powerful force in the world (next to God of course), thought so much of Max's father's opinions, that she made him 'Supervisor of Troubles'. This is true!

The advice Max promised you, President Obama.

Max is very disheartened about the way the United States government has used the National Guard during the Iraq and Afghan conflicts.

President Obama, the mission of the National Guard should be as a standby force and not as a first responder to military adventures of any American government. There needs to be a sufficiently large well trained military so that guardsmen are truly called up as a last resort. The Reserve forces should be called for overseas duty before the Guard is even considered. Every branch of the service has reserve units, which may need to be increased in size and given more training.

Many of the Guard forces require periods of training that slow down deployment and will not be useful in future deployments. Further, when the Guard is pulled away there is no backup force to take their place. National front disasters and other problems are left without adequate reserves.

Max and every one of his six brothers served in the armed forces overseas. The brothers and other relatives have served in virtually every war, including some that happened 100 years before the nation was founded. Most have served in forces that were first line responders to war.

Many family members after their active duty periods joined the National Guard. They did not see themselves as first responders outside the country. The training and equipment were inadequate for fighting overseas wars. Most understood that they might get one overseas call in an emergency, not two or three.

The government cut back the size of the true military, which put the nation in a quandary. It has required the use of last resort forces and forced extensions of service to fight a tiny war with a third world enemy armed with homemade weapons.

This way of dealing with terrorists, along with how we are failing to deal with pirates, is making potential adversaries look at us as a weak nation. We need a military that has the right resources and training to deal with terrorists, pirates, leaderless nations and major power armies. This will only happen if the military forces have adequate numbers of men and women to complete all their missions.

Max wishes you well in all your efforts to keep us safe.

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Link one leads to the Army National Guard.

Link two leads to the Army web site.

Link three leads to the Navy web site.