National Guard calls for more assets

ALBUQUERQUE, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- National Guard chief Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum told the National Guard Association in Albuquerque that more equipment is needed.

The American Forces Press Service reported on Sept. 18 that Blum said, "We are superbly equipped overseas. The soldiers want for nothing as far as equipment in the combat zone, and that's the way it should be.

"(But) we are now in a dangerously low resourcing level for missions back here at home, and that must be seriously addressed. Nobody would accept that from their fire department in any hometown in America, and we should not allow that to be accepted in any (National Guard) armory or readiness center. The American people are not going to be happy with a response from the National Guard that has not been fully equipped for the mission it has been assigned."

Blum made his observations while addressing about 2,500 National Guard officers. Blum used an analogy dating back to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt when justifying Lend-Lease aid to Britain by comparing it to a small-town fire department that needs people, training and equipment to fight fires.

During Blum's hour-long "State of the Guard" he said, "Sept. 11 (2001) marked the beginning of a no-notice transformation of the National Guard. For the minutemen and minutewomen of the National Guard, it was a call to arms, and we have been answering that call to support and defend America and its freedoms and our very way of life every day since."