Vietnam War changed the National Guard.

[Jim]

NPR: How the Vietnam War changed the National Guard.

http://www.npr.org/2015/04/25/402045128 ... rd-service

[al_2ndWolfhounds]

We had a National Guard Officer in my Bn in Vietnam. His unit was called up to active duty and immediately broken up and sent as replacements to Vietnam in 1969. As a civilian he worked for Bell Helicopter Flying/Testing helicopters before they were delivered to the army. When he was called up and they started giving everyone their orders he requested flight status but the army would not let him fly unless he made a time commitment of two years from the time he completed flight school. He passed on that and fulfilled his obligation as an infantry platoon leader. Once he was assigned to us, 25th Inf Div personnel discovered his date of commission and immediately promoted him to 1st Lt. and two weeks later to Cpt. only to revoke it three weeks later and took him back to his proper rank of 2Lt. Once he got past being pissed off he wasn't a bad guy. His best friend in our Bn. was our Bn. Surgeon who had joined the Air Force for four years to avoid being drafted by the Army and ended up being detailed to the army due to shortages. He had a real bad attitude but did take good care of the troops.