Evening star., 1935-11-10
.oL. JOSEPH x. PARTICLE,

~ as adjutant general of the
National guard of the District Of Co.
lumbia, plans to report for duty next
Wednesday.
The Army officer, who has been on
leave of absence since relieved from
duty at his last station. called at the
local militia headquarters last week
and conferred with Lieut.. Col. Peyton
G.. hewitt, acting adjutant general.
and informed the latter that he would
, be on duty next week.
! Under the organic act of the local
militia. the Army is required to assign
a Regular officer to the local Guard
| to serve as adjutant general, and while
with the local outfit he receives a
commission as lieutenant colonel in
| the militia.
Efforts are being made by officials
Of the local militia to find pros
pective site for an armory for the
local militia, building constructed
to suit its particular needs for training
/, and substantial. permanent home.
Since Maj. Walter w. Burns. COM
manding the 260th Coast Artillery
returned from Santa Fe, N. Mex,
where he attended the convention of
the National Guard Association of the
United States, renewed interest has
been taken in the armory project. This,
primarily, is because of the fact that
Maj. Burns succeeded in having the
convention adopt resolution provid-
ing for the appointment of commit
tee of outstanding Guard officers from
various parts of the country to work
in the interest of providing model
structure here for the training of the
citizen soldiers.
1t is understood by local Guard Off
cials that 1t is possible, even at this
late date to have provided from public
works funds money with which to
construct an armory, but that Gov
ernment-owned site would have to be
provided. OF course. it was explained
that the Public Works would not allo-
cate construction funds without first
ascertaining that the militia had
site on which to place the building.
With this information in hand,
Guard officials took the matter up
with officials Of the National Capital
Park and Planning Commission with
a view to discussing with them the
matter Of finding a site on which the
building could be placed. The matter
Of site appears to be entirely in the
hands of this commission, it having
rejected two tentative sites selected by
the Guard. One was on Wisconsin
avenue at the site of the Industrial
Home School, which was assigned by
the District of Columbia Commits
sioners. This was rejected by the
| commission, it was said, because, in
its opinion, the armory should be To-
Gated at the eastern end of the city
to properly balance the Federal build
ins program here
Then the Guard officials conferred
with the Planning Commission Of
flcials, it was stated, and it was tenta-
lively decided to provide for the
armory in the Anacostia Park area
at the eastern terminus of East Capt.
tol street, and considered it in con-
junction with the proposed city
stadium. However, the Planning Com
mission has rejected this, deciding
that the ground proposed for a site
for the armory would be needed in
its entirety to deveop the stadium
project.
This left the Guard entirely with
out any plans for a site and the
matter was left in allegiance until
the action of the National Guard
convention. 1t was realized that
when the National Guard Committee
begins to work on the project as
directed by the convention that the
local officials will have to provide
them with some definite data on
which to start a program to bring
the armory project into reality. It
was with this end in view that con-
ferences were begun with the PLAN
ming officials last week with a view
to obtaining suggestions for site.
With the information in their pos
session that funds may still be OBJ
tanned from public works the officials
~~N eSAAAo w oSS SSCAJ Po"CA oe cAASAA
command to get the commission to
give every aid possible in finding
site so that q fight and struggle of
more than quarter of q century may
be ended, by placing the local troops
in a building where they can be ade-
quately trained and thus be relieved
from the ever-present bugaboo Of be-
ing elected. For the period since the
World War they have either been in
rented buildings or old structures
which the Government had taken over
prior to demolition to make way for
some other governmental building
project. Before going into their pres
ent building, formerly a hotel, they
were housed for several years at the
Government hotels on the Union Sta
tion Plaza. They were compelled to
vacate these to make way for the
Governments improvement program
for the Capitol Grounds and the
Union Station Plaza.
Just as soon as the Guard officials
may obtain from the planning oficials
some idea Of what site they will ap-
prove for the militia, definite steps
viii be taken to press for . building
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