Evening star., 1951-10-22
National Guard Opens.
Conference by Attack
On 'Bung|ing' inKorea
By William J. WheotIey

/ PAL 10 VI VIC SOuAi0iy oAAA 3VAo Poo-
sessions met here today prepared
flor some tart criticism of what
has been described as the badly
bungled" handling of the National
Guard and reserve forces in the
current Korean situation.
Maj. Gen. E. A. Walsh of Min
nesota, president of the National
Guard Association of the United
States, which opened its three
day annual conference at the
Mayflower. fired the opening gun.
He blamed troubles on the lack
of a firm reserve and universal
military training program, in his
annual report.
At the same time, Mai. Gen.
Milton A. Reckord. Adjutant Gen.
eral of Maryland, reminded dele
gates of the necessity of spelling
out in legislation matters concern
ing the National Guard and re-
serve forces.
Raided Before Being Called Up.
1T would probably be well to
bear in mind that. as a general
proposition, the Department of
the Army and Department Of the
Air Force desire as little as pos
sible be written into the low and
that as much as possible be left to
administrative determination" he
said.
The handling by the regular
establishments of the reserve
forces after they were in Federal
service was criticised by Gen
Walsh. He reported that even be-
fore units we're called up the
regular services illegally raided
National Guard units by enlisting
men in technical catagories which
the Army needed.
"It has been conceded by high
officials of the Department of
Defense and charged by Congress.
he told the delegates. that the
handling of the reserves in con-
nection with the Korean emer-
gency was badly bungled and in
light of all that has transpired
there is disillusionment and Bit
terness which, no doubt. will
profoundly affect the maintenance
of an adequate reserve in the
future"
| But what he described as the
"indefensible raiding Of the guard
ranks proved rather minor COM
pared to the problems incident
to the rotation program and the
proposal of the Department Of the
Army and later Of the Department
of the Air Force for the retention
of the colors and designations OF
the Army and Air National Guard
units for a period of five years
and after the personnel thereof
had been released from active
Federal service at the end Of q
High Morale Broken Down.
The lackof firm reserve and
universal military service pro-
gram, Gen. Walsh continued,
made it inevitable that tactical
units of the Army National Guard
would be stripped: that tactical
units OF the Air National Guard
would be stripped and Glass A
units of the Organized Reserve
Corps would be completely broken
up with a consequent reduction of
efficiency and combat potential.
plus an almost complete destruc-
ton of an initially high morale. :"
AS more and more Of the land
forces were sent overseas, he said.
/ the much smaller forces In the
United States had to bear the full
impact Of furnishing replace
ments for Korea.
/ "Guardsmen by the score COM
plain" he continued. that they
joined the Guard because of the
slogan, Join the Guard and serve
with your buddies from your home
town, and it turned out to be
slogan and nothing more"
The initial session was given
over largely to organization. Com
mittees were appointment by Gen
Walsh, and the delegates were
welcomed by District Commits
sioner F. Joseph Donohue. Other
annual reports presented were
those of Brig. Gen. Fred. M
Waterbury and Brig. Gen. William
H. Abendroth.