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Ga Guard to Have Prominent
Role
At Governor's Inauguration
The Georgia National Guard will have a major role when Governor Sonny
Perdue is inaugurated for his second term on Monday, January 8. The Guard’s 116th Army Band will play the official music
during the swearing-in ceremonies at Philip’s Arena. Later in the day, the Governor is
scheduled to “troop the line” as he inspects Army and Air National
Guard formations assembled along Washington Street in front of the State
Capitol. The Capitol event, scheduled for 4 pm Monday, will also feature
music by the 530th Air Guard Band. Pictured above, the newly elected
Governor inspects National Guard troops during the 2003 inauguration.
Youth Challenge Holds Graduation
For Ft. Stewart Campus
The
Georgia National Guard-sponsored Youth Challenge Academy at Fort
Stewart near Savannah held its final graduation of the year at
the City Auditorium with parents and officials packing the house
to watch the proceedings.
One of two ceremonies the Fort Stewart campus holds during the
year, more than 200 former “at-risk” youth walked the stage,
wearing gray fatigues beneath their graduation robes and
accepted their YCA diplomas.
Full Story
DOWD/HRO Staffers Present Check
To Family Support Foundation
In keeping with the holiday spirit that
it’s better to give than receive, members of the Georgia
Department of Defense Directorate of Workforce Development and
Human Resource Office in early December 2006 added to the
coffers of the Georgia National Guard Family Support Foundation.
DOWD and HRO staffers raised more than $2,000, said Warrant
Officer 1, T. Larry Dawson, a human resources development
specialist. The funds came from the purchases of donated items
auctioned during the DOWD and HRO Christmas party.
Full Story
Chatham Artillery, 118th FA
Honor 17 at 'Saint Barbara' Celebration
First Battalion, 118th Field Artillery, in conjunction with the
Chatham Artillery, celebrated Saint Barbara’s Day and Christmas, with an
evening gala held in Savannah. The annual event not only honors the patron
saint of field artillerymen, Saint Barbara, but also selected Soldiers are
honored with an Order of Saint Barbara medallion. The most distinguished
is the Ancient Order of Saint Barbara, awarded to those who have achieved
long-term, exceptional service in field artillery. Receiving the Ancient
Order this year were Colonels Lawrence E. Dudney Jr. and Kenneth D. Lee.
Full Story
New HHC, 48th IBCT First Sergeant
Is 'Second to None'
What best defines newly pinned First Sergeant Gladys Estrada Portwine has
been hard work and a series of firsts. Second to none can be another
description of a polished and determined career.
Portwine will be the first woman and minority in Georgia to take the lead
in a traditionally all male infantry element, the 48th Infantry Brigade
Combat Team’s Headquarters and Headquarters Company number one NCO.
Full Story
60 Years Late, Calhoun Resident Receives Medals
for WW II Service
Honoring fellow Soldiers for their dedication to duty and their devotion
to each other is something members of 1st Battalion, 108th Armor love
doing as much as they love being Soldiers. It really doesn’t matter if
that Soldier isn’t one of their own, or that his service happened years
before many among the 108th’s ranks were ever born. That pride was evident in December when a Floyd County man finally
received recognition for his courage under fire in another time, another
place and another war. Making the presentation of two Bronze Stars, one of
them for valor the other for meritorious service, to former Army Pvt.
Clinton W. Sharp was Maj. Gen. Terry Nesbitt, Georgia Army Guard commander
and director of the Georgia Office of Homeland Security.
Full Story
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Three Air Guard Units
Receive Top AF Awards
The
top unit award in the Air Force may have found a permanent home among the
nine Air National Guard units in Georgia.
The Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, the highest unit award presented by
the Air Force was recently awarded to three Georgia Air National
Guard units, the 116th Air Control Wing at Robins Air Force Base, the
202nd Engineering Installation Squadron in Macon, and the 283rd Combat
Communications Squadron at Dobbins Air Reserve Base. "We cannot recall another example
of a single state being awarded three AFOUAs in one year," said Maj. Gen
Scott A. Hammond, Commander, GA ANG. "Being awarded a single AFOUA is a
highly distinctive honor for a unit, but having three individual units in
a single state honored at one time may be unprecedented."
Full Story
Agreement Gives SDF
Statewide Bases of Operations
During Emergencies
Members of the
all-volunteer Georgia State Defense Force who are called to emergency
duty can now use the campuses of Georgia’s 34 Technical colleges as
staging areas under an agreement between the State, the Defense Force
and the Department of Technical and Adult Education. A Memorandum of
Understanding, signed in late 2006, allows for DTAE campuses
to provide areas for the SDF to assemble, set up command posts,
and triage areas when the event the Governor declares a state of
emergency for which the volunteer force is activated.
Full Story
Book Recounts 1947 Air Guard Accident
Following more than three years of careful research and painstaking
interviewing of witnesses whose recollections may have faded with time,
a Gwinnett county aviation enthusiast and amateur historian has
published what is perhaps the first accurate account of the 1953 crash
of four Georgia Air National Guard fighter jets in which all four
pilots were killed. “Four Down on Old Peachtree Road” is a 261-page
book documenting the events of that crash. Author Ben Cole of Suwanee
officially debuted the book at ceremonies on December 6, 2006, 54 years
to the day after the crash on Gwinnett County’s Old Peachtree Road.
From
official reports and eyewitness accounts he gathered, Cole was able to
reconstruct what happened just after midnight on Dec. 6, 1953. The four
pilots, assigned to the former 128th Fighter Bomber Squadron, 116th
Fighter Bomber Group, were flying back to Marietta’s Dobbins Air Force
Base from a training mission in Miami. Full
Story
Thomaston Post Office Named
for 'Fallen' 48th BCT Guardsman
Sergeant First Class Robert Lee “Bobby” Hollar, a Georgia
Guardsman of Troop E, 108th Cavalry who was killed near Mahmudiyah in September 2005 by an IED, has been honored by
having the Thomaston Post Office named in his honor.
On the last day of the Congressional session, Congress approved
a bill sponsored by Congressman Lynn Westmoreland (8th District
GA), and co-sponsored by Senators Johnny Isakson and Saxby
Chambliss to name the Thomaston Post Office in honor of Sgt 1st
Class Hollar.
Full Story
Senior Enlisted Assignments
Announced For Army Guard Units
The Georgia Army National Guard announced this week a number of changes in
the senior enlisted ranks with the assignments of 12 Command Sergeants
Major. The announcements were made by Maj. Gen. Terry Nesbitt, commander
of the Georgia Army Guard, and Command Sgt. Maj. Neil Russell, State
Command Sergeant Major. The assignments include the following:
Command Sgt. Maj. Charles F. Crews
781st Troop Command (CERF-P)
Command Sgt. Maj. Jackie E. Faulkner
648th Engineer Bn.
Command Sgt. Maj. David L. Harper
48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team
Command Sgt. Maj. Allen Jackson
201st Regional Support Group
Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy Jones
1st Battalion, 214th Field Artillery
Command Sgt. Maj. James Nelson, Jr.
HHD, Joint Forces Headquarters
Command Sgt. Maj. Lance T. Rygmyr
265th Regional Support Group
Command Sgt. Maj. Barry Smallwood
878th Engineer Bn
Command Sgt. Maj. John E. Smiley
148th Brigade Support Bn
Command Sgt. Maj. Bruce Thomasson - 110th
Corps Support Bn
Sgt. Maj. Joe Shubert
1st Bn, 108th Armor
Sgt. Maj. M Calvin Wilcox
1st Bn, 121st Infantry
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DOL's Surface Maintenance Manager; 201st
Commander Is Promoted to 0-6
Lieutenant Col. Steve
Blanton was promoted to the rank of colonel during a late December 2006
ceremony. His wife Gerann and Brig. Gen. Larry Ross, commander 78th Troop
command in Decatur, pinned on Blanton’s new rank during the ceremony at
the at the Georgia DoD’s Confederate Avenue complex. Also participating in
the ceremony were Col. Blanton's children Stephanie, Chris, Jessie and
Ben. In his full time position, Blanton is the surface maintenance manager
for the Directorate of Logistics. As an M-day Soldier, he commands
Newnan’s 201st Regional Support Group. Blanton has been a member of the
Guard since March 1983.
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A look at what happened in
January
in Georgia National Guard history:…
January 1836 - William Schley, the Governor of Georgia,
responded to a Seminole Indian attack during December 1835 in Florida:
Milledgeville, Jan. 13, 1836 (then the state capitol) The
Commander-in-chief has received official information from his
Excellency JOHN H. EATON, Governor of Florida, that a battle occurred
in that Territory on the 13th (sic) December, between the Seminole
Indians and a detachment of U.S. Troops and Militia; and that our
fellow citizens in that territory stand in need of assistance from the
patriotic citizens of Georgia. The Commander-in-chief, under existing
circumstances, will not ORDER the MILITIA of GEORGIA, or any part of
them, to march beyond the limits of the State.-- But he earnestly
invites such of the Volunteer Corps as are willing to go to the relief
of their suffering fellow-citizens of Florida, immediately to signify
to him their readiness for such service.
Volunteers answered
and the 1st Georgia Battalion was formed, led by Major Mark Anthony
Cooper. Major Cooper and his men would withstand a Seminole siege in
April 1836 at Ft. Cooper in Florida.
January 1861 -
The citizens of Georgia was deeply divided over secession. A statewide
vote and convention on secession was authorized by the state
legislature on January 2nd. The Secession Convention met at the state
capitol in Milledgeville on the 18th and the next day by a vote of
208-89 voted to secede from the Union. The popular vote, preceding the
convention, however was quite different. Research by the Georgia
Historical Society in 1972 concluded that the popular vote was razor
thin against secession. Complied by Gail Parnelle,
GaARNG Historical Section |
Historical Society Launches
Membership Drive
A new year means the start of another Historical Society of the Georgia
National Guard membership drive. Those Guardsmen, federal and state
employees who feel that preserving the history and heritage of Georgia’s
military force is significant will find the Society a useful resource.
More importantly, with current deployments still continuing the Society is
a repository of Georgia Guard information including oral and written
histories as well as other documents.
Cost of an annual membership is $30 Individual; $40 joint membership, and
$20 senior (55 or older).
For more information contact..
John Hardwick at:
john.hardwick@ga.ngb.army.mil
678-569-6451
or Dr. Beryl Diamond at
beryl.diamond@ga.ngb.army.mil
678-569-6065.
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