Shout out: MN National Guard

Today's shout out goes to our state's men and women in camouflage. I have the pleasure of working with a few gentlemen from the Guard's administration. In addition to being great to work with, these guys represent a truly impressive organization. A few examples:

• According to recent testimony at the legislature by the head of MN-NG (Adjutant General Shellito), the Minnesota Guard has the best recruitment of any state (even during wartime) and is frequently chosen for federal missions because it is one of the best trained, equipped, and staffed guards in the nation.
  
• MN-NG is developing a nation-leading reintegration program to help returning troops settle successfully back into their lives.
• According to a recent public radio story, MN-NG is one of few military organizations to support blogging by its active duty members despite other military organizations' reticence.
  

It's pretty incredible listening to recent public radio stories about what soldiers (Guard and otherwise) and their families face. With deployments to both Bosnia and Iraq, many of the 2,700 MN-NG members currently on active duty have been overseas 3 out of the last 6 years. That has to be a little more soldier than they expected when signing up to be citizen-soldiers.