The National Guard

(05/23/12) Host intro: The Vermont Air National Guard is considering whether to make Burlington International Airport home to a fleet of new F-35 fighter jets. Communities around the airport debated the jets' presence at a public hearing last week. The Environmental Impact statement put out by the Air Force says that the new jets will bring higher noise levels to neighborhoods surrounding the airport.

On Monday night, South Burlington's City Council voted 4 - 1 to oppose the plan. Sarah Harris has more. more

(05/18/12) The Vermont Air National Guard is proposing to start training flights over the Adirondacks and Watertown area with F-35 jets.

The big, loud planes would replace the smaller, quieter F-16s the National Guard is using now --but not until at least 2015. The Guard is accepting public comments on the plan until June 1. It's held public hearings on the proposal in the Burlington area, and last night in Watertown. Joanna Richards reports. more

(10/06/11) Senators Schumer and Gillibrand announced last week $46.4 million in funding for new construction at Fort Drum. The new facilities will help National Guard and Reserve troops with their training. Joanna Richards has the story. more

(09/01/11) Aid reached one of the last isolated towns in Vermont yesterday morning.
A Vermont National Guard vehicle with water was the first in to the village of Wardsboro.
The small town in the southern Green Mountains had been isolated since flooding struck on Sunday.

The Guard has been using trucks and choppers where necessary to get supplies to stranded residents. Aid reached 13 other towns Tuesday night.

A convoy of about 30 trucks finally made it through to Killington Mt. yesterday morning.

Rob Mitchell, state editor for the Rutland Herald, says the supply effort really ramped up yesterday, just as isolated towns were beginning to run out of essential supplies and medicines.
He spoke with Nora Flaherty on All Before 5 yesterday:

(06/30/10) The Department of Defense is focusing more attention on post traumatic stress disorder, estimating that over 300,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD. Thousands of them are "civilian soldiers" -- members of the Army Reserves and National Guard.

The Department of Veterans Affairs says combat vets are more likely to commit crimes or suffer effects of psychological trauma. Military officials are actively looking for new ways to help them heal and rejoin civilian life.A group in Saranac Lake hopes Patriot Hills, a new vets' center proposed for the village, will be a good fit. This week, they got some encouraging words from the Army national Guard's medical commander. Martha Foley has more. more

(03/05/10) The Glens Falls Armory goes back on the auction block next month. The 115-year-old stone building--complete with turret--has been up for auction twice since the National Guard moved to new quarters last summer.

The state's Office of General Services owns the Armory and has lowered the minimum bid for the building. No one entered a bid at 500,000 dollars in October or 350,000 during the second auction. Now, department spokesperson Heather Groll tells Jonathan Brown that bidding will start at 200,000 dollars.

(01/29/10) A North Country officer chosen by the White House to head the Army National Guard has withdrawn his name from consideration. Major General Joseph Taluto, who lives in Fort Ann, in Washington County, was chosen by President Obama to lead the Guard nationwide back in May of 2009. But his nomination was held up by the controversy surrounding the murder of two of his officers during a deployment to Iraq in 2005. In a statement issued yesterday, Taluto said that the confirmation process had become a "distraction." He also announced that he will retire as head of New York state's national guard, ending a 44-year career. Brian Mann's report on Taluto's nomination first aired last May.

(09/18/09) Yesterday marked the 147th anniversary of the Civil War battle at Antietam in Maryland. It was the single bloodiest day in US history, with more than 20,000 men killed or wounded. Three hundred New Yorkers are still unaccounted for from that battle, their remains lost in the farm fields and the woods. But last summer, a hiker in an area known as the Corn Field discovered the remains of a soldier. His buttons and his belt identified him as a volunteer from New York. That soldier was finally laid to rest yesterday at Saratoga National Cemetery. In just a moment, we'll hear from the historian who arranged the long-delayed funeral. First, here's Brian Mann's audio portrait of the ceremony. It begins with the rumble of a motorcycle honor guard, which accompanied the soldier on his final journey from Maryland.

(09/08/09) The National Guard has mostly solved its recruiting problem. Most units around the country are at full strength, after being hit hard by the pressures of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Guard units are still searching desperately for clergy willing to serve as military chaplains. As Brian Mann reports, more than 250 chaplain posts are unfilled nationwide.

(08/07/09) Yesterday we reported that New York's National Guard is struggling to hire enough clergy to serve as part-time chaplains. The problem reflects an aging clergy and also a growing shortage of priests across the North Country - and across New York state. Brian Mann spoke with Father Douglas Decker. He's the priest at St. Cecilia's in the Jefferson County town of Adams. He also serves with New York's Air National Guard.