Some Army soldiers see Guardsmen and women as carpenters, cops and store clerks who pick up M-16s and train on occasional weekends, soldiers interviewed yesterday said. Even in Iraq, where citizen soldiers fight side by side with full-time soldiers, the divide can be evident. "It was literally written on the bathroom walls: 'National Guard sucks, you can't hack the active duty,'" said Spc. Brandon Wilkins, a New Hampshire Army National Guard soldier who was deployed to Iraq in 2004.
But recent Army criticisms of the Guard's service in Iraq went too far, many local Guard soldiers said. A Los Angeles Times article this week said the Army is considering phasing Guard units out of combat roles because some Army officials think active-duty soldiers can do the job better.
Many guardsmen and women interviewed yesterday were offended that Army officers would say Guard soldiers are too old or out of shape to handle the 125-degree heat in Iraq. Despite the Guard's work in Iraq and Afghanistan, it still hasn't earned respect from many active-duty Army soldiers.
Daigle and Clark said that if Guard soldiers stop going to war and are used only for state purposes, like disaster relief or peacekeeping missions, the public will become less concerned with the reasons for going to war. "If you send your neighbors and your brothers and the people that walk next to you every day and live with you, then the war means more to you," Daigle said.
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060511/REPOSITORY/605110339
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