As I recall, back when they were giving VP Dan Quayle grief over his NG service during Vietnam; it was pointed out that one or some Indiana NG units were indeed activated to go. One of the few, if not only state to have NG units activated for Vietnam.
Memory's a little fuzzy on it though.
As for current events, Indiana just sent over 800 NG tropos over to Iraq, the largest deployment since WWII, I think, I read in the paper.
With so many Gaurd units doing active tours; it may not be wise for the Den-O-Rats to insinuate that Gaurd duty is less than "military" duty. It's going to pi$$ off a lot of family members who have loved ones in harms way. [God Bless Them!]