 Okay. Move out. Make it New York, Nebraska, Arkansas, California, Hawaii or any other state and it's still a statement of fact. The men of the National Guard form an important part of America's overall defensive strength. Some 400,000 Army Guardsmen and about 80,000 Air Guardsmen are on the job here in Puerto Rico as elsewhere. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Their role is a unique one and their tradition a source of justifiable pride. They are professionally trained citizen soldiers and airmen. Always prepared on a moment's notice. Answer the call. 28th Infantry Division of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. The 28th is part of the Selected Army National Guard and Reserve Force or SRF as it is called. The SRF was formed as a result of a mounting tension in Southeast Asia and is composed of 150,000 Army Guardsmen and Reserve Guardsmen. 119,000 of which are Guardsmen. As a matter of fact, all the combat elements of that Selected Force, the 3 Infantry Division, the 6 Infantry Brigades and Armored Cavalry Regiment and other combat support units are National Guard Outfits. Through increased manning, more equipment and accelerated training, these SRF units have given the nation a ready force unequaled in our history. Helicopters are part of the Guard too. Both the Army and Air National Guard have programs under which qualified young men can train to be pilots. This giant Air National Guard C-97, fighting its way through the fringes of a rampaging tropical storm, has taken off from an Air Force base in the Philippines. Its crewmen are far from their homes in Tennessee. They are citizen airmen, but their destination is Vietnam. The watery tropical jungle below is the treacherous Mekong Delta in South Vietnam. To this Tennessee Air National Guard crew and to many other Air National Guardsmen, the Mekong has become a familiar sight. So has Saigon. Its tonsernut airport dead ahead and those flooded rice paddies hiding the elusive Viet Cong. Over the Mekong, it's not unusual for a crew to find itself a target of a VC barrage of small arms fire. Fortunately, these men from Tennessee were not hit. Tonsernut, a strange name in a faraway place. To many of our nation's men and women of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard, Tonsernut serves as an introduction to the war being fought in this corner of Southeast Asia. All this activity is an impressive sight. Reactions to it vary with the individual. Let's listen to this Air Guardsman explain how he felt. It's hard to explain. You get the feeling you're a part of all this back in the Philippines. When you leave there, you get a real good briefing on the situation in Vietnam. Except when you skirt the edges of a typhoon like we did today. The five-hour flight in Saigon is fairly routine. We're usually pretty tired because we've flown halfway around the world to deliver this cargo. No matter how tired you are, though, when you get over the delta, everybody comes alive. I don't suppose there's more aerial activity anywhere than there is on a combat zone. They say this is the busiest airport in the world, and I believe it. You see all kinds of aircraft, some waiting their call to combat and others returning from their combat missions. Equipment is piled all over the place. As a matter of fact, parking space is so critical that we unload and get right out to make room for others. We're parked by the tower of this trip. That's only about 50 yards from the fuel storage area that was hit by a VC mortar attack the other night. We saw some of the planes that had been hit as we taxed it in. It makes you sort of sick. Just today, a big force of VC was flushed out of hiding eight miles from here. We've got men, radar missiles all over. I wouldn't want to try to infiltrate this place. The Vietnamese help load and unload our airplanes here. They're real friendly people and they do a fine job. We, of course, hope that all these workers are our friends, but I guess you really never know. See that? I've never seen that before. I guess that chopper's bringing it back for repairs. Boy, she really got banged up. For us national guardsmen, these missions to Vietnam are rewarding experiences. In my book, every guy over here is a patriot in a finest American tradition. The work of these guardsmen is as widely varied as the needs of the nation's defense structure and those needs often call for skills which give new importance to the phrase, technicians in uniform. Take this airplane, for instance. It looks like any other C-97. You might describe this one as something round and silver with a voice that can be heard around the world. This is the Oklahoma Air National Guard's Talking Bird. They call it that because it has radio and communications equipment for worldwide operations. This plane remains on four-hour alert at all times. A crisis anywhere in the world may mean that this crew will be on its way. That was the case during the 1965 crisis in the Dominican Republic. Talking Bird was one of the first planes ordered into Santo Domingo. It has a wide range of versatility. These capable guardsmen can land in a remote area anywhere in the world and relay conversation from a walkie-talkie in a foxhole directly to the Pentagon. This is Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, another troubled area of the world. The air guard flies into this outpost in the Caribbean regularly. In the past year, the Air National Guard has taken over a significant part of the aeromedical evacuation flights for the Air Force. Cuba is one of the many offshore locations served by the Guard. Cargo II is important to these dedicated, hard-working sailors and Marines. And at this sprawling naval base in the Atlantic, guarding against infiltration is a 24-hour-a-day job. Minefields, barbed wire fences, a no-man's land, outposts that remind one of Korea. That's what it's like here. On one side, we have our outposts. On the other, they have theirs. We watch them. They watch us. The seas are not an unfamiliar element to the Army National Guard. These boats in the log-filled waters around Tacoma belong to the Washington Army National Guard. These guardsmen wear the Army green. They may sound as salty as a sailor, but they're all Army. Whether it's on the bridge or on the deck of these floating machine shops, tugs, utility and landing craft, these guardsmen are expert seamen. Although their mission is primarily one of combat support, their importance in natural disasters makes this outfit a valuable asset to the entire West Coast. Their flotilla is unique, the only one in the National Guard. These sailors in green are shoving off on a landing exercise with other guard troops. Time and tide make little difference to these sea-going soldiers. Flowing through the frigid and choppy waters of Puget Sound, they observe strict radio silence. The fact that guardsmen serve their community in state as well as their nation makes the Guard unusual in itself. In other words, these men swear allegiance to both state and nation, and thus the National Guard is the only military force immediately available to a governor or a community in the event of a raging tornado, a rampaging flood, a fierce forest fire, or any other civil emergency. That's quite an asset for Americans to have, a sort of bonus they get only with the National Guard. The Guard has its responsibility to the state and community. It trains primarily to meet its wartime mission, and in any war there's always a high priority for linguists, men who can speak foreign languages. They are needed to read enemy documents, interrogate prisoners, and for many other duties. The National Guard is well-prepared on this score too. Here's a group of Utah Army guardsmen in their foreign language laboratory. They're practicing some of the toughest Oriental dialects. This Guard linguist company has capabilities in 18 different languages. It's interesting to note that 94% of the men in this unit have lived in foreign countries. They learned the languages fluently. They became very familiar with the people, with their customs, with the geography of the country, and with the climate. That on-the-job training of the highest order and the high caliber of men in this outfit is typical of the individual dedication and determination that is found throughout the National Guard. They're the kind of people you like to associate with. These linguists don't spend all their time in the laboratory by any means. On a weekend, they might be out working closely with an Army Guard Special Forces unit. The proud Green Berets. The Guard has them too. Here's part of the Utah Special Forces outfit getting ready for a night parachute drop in connection with an exercise the following day. They're a rugged-looking bunch, and they're tough too. It's a line of work that demands a pocketful of courage and a heaping dose of physical stamina. There's something else special too. Those waves skipping across the coral reefs at Puerto Rico are washing directly toward an aggregation known as the buccaneers. They're special because they make music from 55 gallon oil drums. Take a few of those drums, cut them down, beat them up a little bit, temper them, and you have a steel drum band. And when you have a steel drum band you have, well, give a listen. Make a different kind of music. That music is the thunder and roar of an F-86 jet fighter. Like all the Air Guard's 22 air defense units, they maintain the watch 365 days a year, standing alert just like their compatriots in the active Air Force. In standing alert, these guardsmen are ready to get into the air in just a few minutes. If an unidentified plane approaches, they go up to check it out. So far, they've all been friendly. We're an enemy to show up, however, these planes are armed for battle. These guardsmen are the first line of defense. Station maintains a 24-hour year-round vigil of the skies surrounding the island. It's a dreary, lonely job, but it requires professional confidence of the highest order. These Hawaiian Army Guardsmen are flying a routine patrol along the beautiful shores of Oahu. In Hawaii, the Army and Air Guard team together to provide the primary defenses for the island. Army Guard Nike Hercules batteries such as this Hawaiian unit regularly establish new records for missile firing accuracy and professionalism. These Guardsmen carry out their practice firings right from their island stations in Hawaii. A built-in advantage to living in a paradise like this. Guardsmen protecting the key industrial complexes in the continental United States usually go to New Mexico for their practice firings. These Nike units of the Guard are on round the clock alert at all times. Missiles are among the most complex sophisticated weapons in our nation's defense inventory. The Guard's teamwork and precision timing lend that necessary assurance so comforting to the people who once suffered the indignity of a sneak attack. Holding the Hawaii Nike Hercules defense is the Hawaii Air National Guard and its F-102 jet interceptors. If an unidentified aircraft approaches these shores, these jet pilots scramble into the wild blue like a surfer takes to Waikiki. The heavy responsibilities given the Guard and the obvious confidence the nation's strategists place on Guardsmen is comforting evidence of the Guard's readiness and capability. It's a trained professional force that can and does do almost anything. These F-105s, for example, belong to the New Jersey Air National Guard. They can carry more bombs than many of what we called our big bombers in World War II. One of the pilots in this flight was Captain Jim Butler. He flew missions over North Vietnam in an active Air Force F-105 outfit a short time back. When he got out of the service, he signed up with the airlines, but he keeps his weekends for these supersonic stallions. He's typical of the combat-tested men in the Guard, and he provides an additional element of up-to-date combat experience which he can share with his fellow Guardsmen. How's this for a voice of authority? Both guns spit out 6,000 rounds a minute, batched to any point in the world in a matter of olifying once again the teamwork that exists between the National Guard and the active military forces. These aerial tankers are a relatively recent addition to the Guard inventory, but they've proved their importance time and time again. In an exercise in 1964, these Guard tankers teamed up with Guard jets and moved to Europe in a mere 9 hours. As a rule, Guardsmen aren't found short of ingenuity. These are some Illinois Army Guard infantrymen from the 33rd Division, teamed up with a tank element of the Wisconsin Army Guard in a recent field exercise. These ground units are requesting assistance from their brother Guardsmen in the air. This request does an unusual ring because the Army tanks are running low on fuel and there's not a drop within miles of this area. Remote from everything except an abandoned airstrip. Are they in trouble? Not with their sky-borne gas station around. Perimeter defenses are established while the fly boys break the refueling nozzle and in a matter of seconds the aircraft is supplying the tanks with vital fuel. In addition to these tankers, other tactical air command elements of the Guard include 23 fighter, 12 reconnaissance and 4 air commando groups plus many other non-flying units which play an important role in providing support in radar, communications, electronics and weather. 9 F-100 tactical fighter and 4 RF-84F tactical reconnaissance units plus a tactical control group have been placed in an accelerated training status similar to the program being carried out by the Army Guard SRF units. This bond in the Guard between the Army and the Air and between one state and another is indicative of the determination that is so prevalent in Guard ranks from the bottom to the top. Listen to the growl of these Colorado Air National Guard F-100. They're setting out on a mission to support the Army's fifth division at Fort Carson. This will be a simulated combat exercise but it sounds like real. The conversations you will hear now are the communications that were established between a forward air controller on the ground, an observation plane in the air and the pilots of the Air Guard Supersapers. These air guardsmen were prepared. One state in which the Guard must constantly be prepared is only a stone's throw from Soviet territory. The State of Alaska. Here again, the Army and Air National Guard work closely together particularly with the Guard Eskimo Scouts who plow the Arctic the year round reporting anything unusual they see. In this exercise, they've spotted something. After reporting, they move by... Now, let's see. What's the Army term for dog sled? The Army Guard are in the field too and they move into action until you try it in snow about three feet deep in the shallow places. But these men are from a hearty stock and this jaunt is about the same as a Sunday stroll to them only with a much graver purpose. Having reached the scene, it's a short jog to their point of link-up with the other troops. Then it becomes a lonely vigil of sweating it out trying to become an inanimate part of the surrounding countryside just waiting for the next move, whatever it might be. If a situation dictates a call for reinforcements, they're available and they travel by Alaska Air Guard ski equipped C-123J aircraft. Right now, the reinforcements have only one purpose to get where they're needed as fast as this bird can get them there. It's a rugged aircraft just made to order for the challenge of Alaska's lusty terrain. The scenes here have depicted some of the unusual aspects of the National Guard about which most people are unaware. They should not cloud the fact that there are many other guardsmen in many other locations with equally important missions who stand ready to defend their country. They've served their country now for more than 300 years. It took that long to write a creed like this. I bled at Bunker Hill and froze at Valley Forge. I rode with Washington across the icy Delaware. I saw the making of a nation, for I am the guard and I was there. I swam the flood to take a child in my arms, then watched her tears melt away. I fought through snow and I felt the twister blow. I know what it means to pray.