 Army presented an official report produced for the armed forces and the American people. It started out pretty much the same as any Saturday morning in a New England spring. The sun shone down on the same houses it's been shining down on every spring for the last 300 years. For ours you see is an old town brushed everywhere with the sun-warmed marks of our history and tradition and a walk through the park at the edge of town is like a walk into the American past. Here once the embattled farmer stood and fired the shot heard round the world. Yes we live among signs of the past but that doesn't mean we live in the past especially in the spring. That's the time we seem to shake the cobwebs off and get cracking on what has to be done. Chores for example of all shapes and sizes. Requiring brain as well as brawn. First on my list this day. Putting our lawn into shape after winter has given it a beating. That is when the neighbor's kids give you a chance to get some work done. I was not to get very far. It was 1 50 p.m. by the first parish meeting house clock when the call came. I'll see you later. Touch up on the porch. I'm sorry honey they'll have to wait. It's an eight-minute drive to the National Guard Nike Ajax site. Practice are the real thing. I have to get out there quickly. Me and the rest of the guard while those of us heading for the Nike site are moving there fast in town. Other guard units are arriving on the double alerts like these give other elements of the National Guard an opportunity to test its ability to react to emergency. The men are deployed from the armory to key locations throughout the area in accordance with plans worked out in precise detail. A radar scope has sent into action a large group of trained guardsmen throughout a wide area of New England. Our Nike site we're ready and deployed around strategic points are other guardsmen. Crucial defense plans which might be targets. Reservoirs too must be guarded. Perimeter security for our missile sites is essential. Within minutes of the alert Air National Guard jets are aloft in support of the Air Force mission and this unidentified blip has caused it all. Has come to think of it caused me to leave my wife stranded on a sunny Saturday afternoon. My mind still troubled to her parting words. One thing is clear she doesn't understand what the guard means to me. To us I can still remember the first night I reported for my two hour drill at the armory. My first guard unit was a tank outfit and on the floor of the armory was a stripped down turret assembly of a tank. Training of the National Guard is carried out in accord with tough active army standards. New enlistees without prior military service except those with special skills are required to take six months of active duty training at an army training center. That means we're past the basic training stage. Training is on a unit basis. In our unit right in our own hometown two hours a week at night we learned the ins and outs of mastering tanks and combat. Thousands of guard officers and enlisted men are enrolled in army service schools taking either resident or extension courses. Since I was interested in electronics I was anxious for technical training that would allow me to transfer to a National Guard Nike missile site. I was given plenty of opportunity for advancement both in rank and technical specialty but I had to prove myself prove that I could work with men. In the guard you can rise as high as your interest ability and experience will take you. By no means are we restricted to an armory floor. Now and again during the year on weekends and for a two week period during the summer we go in for rugged training exercises. Training can only be as modern as the equipment used. The Army National Guard maintains more than 3,200 tracked vehicles including some 2,400 tanks. An idea of the immensity of our country's National Guard is the more than 5,000 army and air guard units in more than 2,600 communities. They play a varied role from maneuvers in over 100 degree heat to the freezing cold of the Arctic. Scattered up and down the windswept coast of western Alaska are members of a unique fighting force the Eskimo Scouts of the Alaska National Guard. They have the mission of reporting any unusual movement observed in the Bering Sea and assisting in emergency rescue operations. The cold breath of the Siberian mainland is only 38 miles away. A long way from Alaska is our 50th state, balmy and beautiful Hawaii. The National Guard bears a major defense responsibility in the Hawaiian islands. Nike Hercules batteries on Oahu, the main island, are manned by guardsmen. Many key cities and industrial centers throughout the United States are now protected by Nike missile sites manned by national guardsmen. An important part of the active army's air defense team. Although most of the guardsmen involved are part-time soldiers, each unit has a nucleus of full-time technicians who maintain the equipment and guard the skies against enemy attack 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That's why we in the guard feel good about being part of a hard-hitting powerful deterrent force with its 21 infantry divisions and six armored divisions. Coupled with the ground forces is the striking power of the Air National Guard, which has important defense responsibilities and interceptor and tactical reconnaissance using high-performance jet aircraft. Backing up the fighting arms are hundreds of combat support units, ranging over many different specialties. Guard units maintain and rebuild millions of dollars of urgently needed equipment, communications, tools, weapons, medical supplies. Disaster strikes a community. The equipment and the men are on the spot to help, and quickly. From the west coast to the eastern seaboard, we're on call by state governors and local emergencies. For we guardsmen have a kind of dual status. We're reservists of the United States armed forces and also members of the National Guard of our own state. So really a tax dollar spent on the National Guard does double duty. It helps pay for a large military organization trained to defend our country in time of emergency. It is also a local organization ready for immediate action when disaster strikes. Well the Guard had agreed to my transfer to Nike duty as soon as the Nike site was taken over from the act of army not far from town. I got valuable technical training that actually increased my civilian earning power at my job. A military organization men, but its members are civilians who stay right in their hometown. Unless of course the flag goes up. The extra income comes in handy too. We're paid at regular army or air force rates. The way I look at it, what makes the National Guard unique is its civilian character. It's been that way since 1636 when the first state militia was founded right in this area. Men who serve in the Guard go on working or studying in the normal way of civilian life while getting their training. They go on maneuvers with their friends and neighbors, their hometown buddies. Put in another way civilian in peace, soldier in war. And that's just the way the Guard puts it in. I am the Guard. Our creed. The pageant of our history that every Guardsman knows so well. Civilian in peace, soldier in war. Of security and honor for three centuries I have been the custodian. I am the Guard. I was with Washington in the wilderness, fought the Wiley Warrior and watched the dark night bow to the morning. At Concord's Bridge I fire the fateful shot heard round the world. I bled on Bunker Hill. My footprints marked the snows at Valley Forge. I pulled a muffled oar on the bards that bridged the icy Delaware. I stood with Washington on the sun drenched heights of Yorktown. I saw the sword surrendered. I am the Guard. I pulled a trigger that loosed along Rifles Havoc at New Orleans. These things I know. I was there. The hill at San Juan felt the fury of my charge. The far plains and mountains of the Philippines echoed to my shout. I am the Guard. The dark forests of the Argonne blazed with my barrage. Chateau Thierry crumbled to my cannonade. The arches of victory I marched in Legion. I was there. I am the Guard. I bowed briefly on Grim Corregidor. Then saw the light of liberation shine on the faces of my comrades. Through the jungle and on the beaches I fought the enemy, beat, battered and broke him. I raised our banner to the serene air on Okinawa. I was there. I am the Guard. I scrambled over Normandy's beaches. I was there. I am the Guard. Across the 38th parallel I made my stand. I flew McGalley. I was there. I was there when the raging waters boomed down the valley. I cradled the crying child in my arms and saw the terror leave her eyes. I moved through smoke and flame at Texas City. The stricken knew the comfort of my skill. I dropped the food that fed the starving beast on the frozen fields of the west. And through the towering drifts I plowed to rescue the maroon. I faced forward to the tornado, the typhoon and the horror of the hurricane. These things I know. I was there. I am the Guard. I have brought a more abundant, a fuller, a finer life to our youth. Wherever a strong arm and valiant spirit must defend the nation, in peace or war, wherever a child cries or a woman weeps in time of disaster, there I stand. I am the Guard. For three centuries a soldier in war, a civilian in peace. Of security and honor I am the custodian now and forever. I am the Guard. Radar screen turned out to be a friendly plane that had wandered off course. The alert is over, but the next object the radar scope picks up may not be as friendly and wasn't home, but she had left a note for me. Ted, if you look in the kitchen you'll find an apple pie just baked. A peace offering, okay? Honey, if I gripe now and then about the time the Guard takes you away from me, well, call it a woman's privilege or something. I should know better. Anyway, I finish the raking, so there have gone shopping with the menace. Be back soon. Wherever a strong arm and valiant spirit must defend the nation, in peace or war, wherever a child cries or a woman weeps, in time of disaster there I stand. I am the Guard. For three centuries a soldier in war, a civilian in peace. Of security and honor I am the custodian now and forever. I am the Guard. Picture is an official report for the armed forces and the American people. Produced by the Army Pictorial Center. Presented by the Department of the Army in cooperation with this station.