NCNGA Weekly Guardsman for February 2, 2023
February 2nd, 2023
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Gold Sponsors
IN THIS EDITION:
Save the Date: Tarheel Minuteman Foundation Scholarship Fund Golf Tournament! NCNGA
Helping a Hero, building a free home for a NCNG Disabled Veteran NCNGA
2023 EANGUS Scholarship Season Now Open NCNGA
NC Air Guard Retiree’s Breakfast NCNGA
The Final Chapter for the 171st Engineer Company DVIDS
Registration Now Available for NCNGA Convention and NCNG Military Ball NCNGA
690th NCARNG Reunion NCNGA
Tickets-At-Work: Members get Discounts on Tickets NCNGA
This Week in NCNG History NCNG Museum
February 2nd — Today in Guard History National Guard
Save the Date: Tarheel Minuteman Foundation Scholarship Fund Golf Tournament! NCNGA
The Tarheel Minuteman Foundation is holding the annual Scholarship Fund Golf Tournament on April 24, 2023! This event will take place at the beautiful Lakes Course at Carolina Trace Country Club. All proceeds will assist in providing scholarships to members of the North Carolina National Guard and their families.
Online registration for players and sponsorships is open now!
Click here to register: ncnga.org/upcoming-events/
Helping a Hero, building a free home for a NCNG Disabled Veteran NCNGA
Do you know a veteran that would benefit from a free specially adapted home? Helping a Hero is being awarded to two different North Carolina National Guard Veterans. However, they can’t do it alone they need you to nominate someone. Learn more at https://helpingahero.org/
Use the attached nomination form and mail to info@ncnga.org with Helping a Hero Nomination in the subject line. Nominations are due March 1, 2023. If you have questions, please contact Larry at 984-664-0308. DO NOT use the online nomination form.
2023 EANGUS Scholarship Season Now Open NCNGA
Great educational opportunities for EANGUS members and their dependents!
The EANGUS Scholarship Program offers the award of many full-tuition scholarships provided by our partner institutions, as well as our $2,000 CSM Virgil Williams Scholarships and $1,000 Patriot Scholarships funded by corporate and individual donations.
Our scholarship program is one of the primary benefits we offer to our members and their dependents. Each year, we award multiple scholarships with a total value of over $500,000.
The deadline to apply for most EANGUS scholarships is 1 APRIL 2023. Please refer to the EANGUS Scholarship page for specific scholarship details and application deadlines for each institution and scholarship we offer.
Scholarships Offered & How to Apply
NC Air Guard Retiree’s Breakfast NCNGA
The NC Air National Guard, 145th Airlift Wing has scheduled our annual Retiree’s Breakfast this year for Friday, February 3rd, 2023! We’re going to be reaching out to the Retiree Emails we have on file, so please network with your fellow retiree’s to make sure they get the word and to ensure widest possible dissemination. We want to get the word out to as many of our retired members as possible. If anyone wants to sign up on our email list, just have them send me and email at the address below. The Chief’s Council, sponsors of the event, look forward to seeing you in February. It’s not necessary to respond to this email, or to RSVP, we’ll keep you updated and I’ll send out additional emails between now and the event. We look forward to seeing everyone, again Merry Christmas & Happy New Year !!
Terry Henderson
Airmen & Family Readiness Program Manager
N.C. Air National Guard, 145th Airlift Wing
4930 Minuteman Way, Charlotte, NC 28208
Off (704) 398-4949 Cell (980) 721-4019
Email: terry.henderson.3@us.af.mil
The Final Chapter for the 171st Engineer Company DVIDS
The National Guard fell about 9,000 troops short of its goal in 2022. Some states are improving their outreach and incentive plans to try to counter that trend.
Walking into the armory in St. Pauls, North Carolina, felt like walking into a reunion.
The armory, which belongs to the North Carolina National Guard (NCNG), is the former home of the 171st Engineer Company.
I walked past former and current NCNG Soldiers hugging, laughing, and telling stories as I entered the building on January 7, 2023.
I was in awe at the number of people in civilian clothes; there were more people who no longer served than uniformed Soldiers in attendance.
Waiting for the ceremony to start, I saw a young lieutenant holding a ceremonial bugle, a horn instrument fitted with a speaker to play taps when a musician is unavailable. He was the final executive officer for the 171st. He would be pushing the button to play the music during the ceremony to honor the unit’s memory and those who had died in service.
U.S. Army 1st Lt. Justin Duncan was part of the unit for less than a year before being transferred as part of the Engineer Company’s closure.
“It’s a mixture of feelings,” Duncan said. “The initial feeling is ‘why is this happening’, and trying to understand the organizational reason for the unit closing down.”
Later during the ceremony, Capt. Micheal Haugh, the 171st’s final commanding officer, said that the unit closing down symbolized that the NCNG was responding to current threats and moving towards a new force structure.
The 171st Soldiers were not strangers to the idea of restructuring to meet the needs of the military; the unit traces its lineage back to 1949 when it began as an anti-aircraft artillery battalion.
From there, the unit transitioned to an armor unit before reorganizing as Charlie Company, 105th Engineer Battalion in 1996, which deployed to Iraq in 2004. In 2006, it became the 171st Engineer Company.
After the ceremony, former and current Guardsmen gathered for photos, starting with those who had been part of C. Co. The group had a mix of both former and current Soldiers.
“You can look out at all the beards in this crowd and see how the guard has had a very diverse and unique group of Soldiers who served their community,” Duncan said. He was referencing the former Soldiers in attendance, many of whom had grown beards after leaving the military.
Tickets-At-Work: Members get Discounts on Tickets NCNGA
Tickets at Work: The benefits are endless when it comes to being a NCNGA member! Check out our Tickets-At-Work program, where members can get discounts on tickets from Busch Gardens all the way to Disney. For more information, visit https://ncnga.org/discounts/
This Week in NCNG History NCNG Museum
If you know of anything significant to the NCNG that occurred on any of these dates, and would like it added to our records, please email 1LT Dearie at kory.k.dearie.mil@mail.mil
February 2nd — Today in Guard History National Guard
1951
Unnamed Hill, South Korea – men of the 65th Infantry, a Regular Army regiment composed entirely of men from Puerto Rico and assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division, captures a strategic hill after a three day fight to gain its summit. What makes this unit of interest to Guard history? Organized in 1899 as the Puerto Rican Regiment of Volunteer Infantry it was a special unit within the Regular Army (redesignated to 65th Infantry in 1920). Recruited entirely on the island, the overwhelming number of enlisted personnel spoke only Spanish. As a result, the officers assigned were required to speak both English and Spanish, often a hard language requirement to fill t the time. This made peacetime assignments of the unit outside of Puerto Rico almost impossible. Over the years, the regiment took on many of the aspects of a Guard unit, with men staying in the same company for their whole career, something almost unheard of in the Army. This often led to fathers and sons and even in some cases, grandsons serving in the same unit. Again, this was not a norm in the Army, but it was (is) not an uncommon occurrence in the Guard. It did not serve overseas in World War I but did see combat in Italy during World War II. Deployed with the 3rd Division it arrived in Korea in 1950 and remained there until 1954. Since Spanish was a required language for service with the regiment, the easiest solution to finding replacements was to mobilize units from the Puerto Rican National Guard and levy men to send to Korea as fillers. After the war, as the Army began to reduce strength and open all units to integration, it was decided to transfer the 65th Infantry to the Puerto Rico National Guard, which occurred in 1959. Known as the “Borinqueneers” (after the name of the native people who lived on Puerto Rico when Columbus discovered it) this unique regiment remains an important part of the Guard today.
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