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Remarks by Mr. Jim Wooten Atlanta-Journal Constitution Reserve Achievement
Awards Weekend warriors. I remember that moniker – and you undoubtedly do too. It was applied jokingly. It was applied disparagingly and sometimes even maliciously to describe the men and women of the National Guard and Reserves. Implied by the phrase was the supposition that members of the Guard and Reserves aren’t real soldiers, that you are glorified paintballers who dress up and run around the woods shooting blanks at imaginary targets between rounds of golf and keg parties. Even employers sometimes, when you went to them and asked for time off to complete your military obligations, gave you looks or made jestful comments that suggested you were gold-bricking, skipping important work on the job to go off and train for missions that would never come to pass. And then came Sept. 11th. And Afghanistan. And Iraq. Nobody calls you "weekend warriors" now. "The weekend warrior is dead," says the new chief of the National Guard Bureau, Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum. "This is not your father’s National Guard or even your older brother’s National Guard." In fact the transformation of the image of the National Guard and Reserve in just over two years – and especially in the past year – has been remarkable. I read a lot of newspapers and pay attention to media treatment. And I can tell you the respect you have earned by your superb performance when your country called you to the front lines is the envy of every National Guardsman and Reservist who ever heard the phrase "weekend warrior." You have done, as citizen-soldiers have done since the American Revolution, put away the tools of civilian enterprise and answered the country’s call. You did it professionally, with a resolve and selflessness that made your neighbors and your country proud. The missions asked of you are so many. You are peacekeepers, freedom fighters and the sentries who stand visibly to reassure the public that America is secure in the face of terrorism. The truth is the nation could not do without you. Nearly half of the military personnel on duty in the Middle East are Guardsmen and Reservists. On any given day, 35,000 of you are on active duty in 77 countries around the world. We can’t do without you. Thirty-four percent of the Army’s total strength is in the Guard and Reserves, including more than 30 percent of its combat support and combat-service support, half its combat power, and nearly 70 percent of its field artillery. More of you have been activated in the past two years than at any time since Korea. With frequent and long-term deployments, the average Guardsman and Reservist spends well over 100 days a year performing some kind of military service. Weekend warrior? Not by a long shot. As I reflect back over recent years on the obligations you have borne, I am in awe that in the course of your lives as citizen soldiers you are able to adjust to war and peace with such remarkable adaptability. That is, really, the strength of America, that ordinary men and women make the adjustments necessary in their lives to answer freedom’s call when our way of life is threatened. No doubt the nation respects you and appreciates the job you are doing. My job, as an editor, is to make certain the country understands that the war against terrorism is not a brief or easy one. Victory on the battlefield, as we saw in Iraq, is but the first phase of the campaign to rid the world of the terrorists who threaten us. In some quarters, the country grows impatient. It is the culture we live in. Our short attention spans demand instant gratification, quick solutions – and war, as you know, often is not. After December 7th, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, it took four months before the United States responded to that attack with the Doolittle Raid in April of '42. A land campaign and the invasion of Guadalcanal came eight months later, in August of 1942. And it took the United States two years and six months after Hitler declared war before we landed in France in June of 1944. Patience. That is what is required of us as civilians. Patience and support for you. We are in an active war against terrorism. A hundred and eighty thousand of you have already been summoned into service, and the numbers grow daily. You are the front line, even as you stand here today. It is an awesome responsibility. This nation will win the war on terrorism. It may be a long time coming, but the world will be at peace again. One day the world will be rid of the treat of terrorism and the insanity of crazed dictators. And when it happens, the people of the free world will owe you a debt of gratitude that another generation will assume. For 39 years, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has given this award. To stand here on this occasion and honor the achievement of these six men and women is indeed a privilege. Your dedication, your discipline and your success give your fellow citizens comfort and hope that our citizen soldiers will be alert and ready when called again. You have chosen to wear a uniform, a uniform that expresses something that matters more than you or me. Nothing you do in your life may matter so much as the duty you will perform to its pride. Weekend warrior, you’ve done your country proud. |
