More on the National Guard going to Honduras. I have been in the Illinois National Guard for a little over a year. During the year I spent 14 weeks at Fort Benning, Georgia. There I went through training in warfare of all sorts. My job in the National Guard is infrantryman. I am the one that will be on the front lines, willing to die for the country in which we all live. If there is a war, most of the males between the ages of 18 and 29 years old will go for training, and then it will be off to war.

The Guard spends only 38 days a year training, whereas the U.S. Army spends approximately 335 days a year training. The time I spend might seem trivial compared to that of the U.S. Army, but I figure the training I have, no matter how little it seems, will give me an advantage in war.

When I go to my one-weekend-a-month meeting of the National Guard, my unit and I train very hard. Why do so many people want to deprive me of spending my two weeks annual training in Honduras? The experience I get there may save my life in a war-time situation. If you ever had to go to war, you would want to have as much training as you could get. I joined the National Guard on my own; nobody forced me into joining. So why can’t people let us Guardsmen go and train in order to return from war? Please don’t stop me from getting the training I need to live. I’m not afraid to die for my country, but if I can come home when it is over—if you don’t mind—I would like to.

PFC David Powell

freshman

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