[armyman]

I'm actually on the side of the Lt. Col. in this one, if only to reinforce the basic principles of the Tenth Amendment. An officer of the Louisiana National Guard does not answer to anyone at the Pentagon when it comes to domestic National Guard protocol My basic point was that that the U.S. Department of Defense has no business telling the leadership of a state National Guard how to conduct itself in a matter like this. That's why the Defense Department's wishes were given as a "request."


Yes it is infact the DOD's business to tell the National Guard how to conduct itself. The National Guard IS a part of the U.S. military, and therefore DOES fall under the DOD's eye. Also when a Guardsman takes the oath of enlistment he swears allegeance to the UNITED STATES!!!! The National Guard can be federalized and once that happends the state level has zero say in what happens.


One of these days a National Guard officer is going to get some REAL b@lls . . . and have CBS film the arrival of coffins adorned with state flags at these bases -- with no U.S. flag in sight.


As a National Guard soldier (yes i served time in Iraq) i would like to say having state flags draped on the coffin is a disgrces to the fallen soldier. The soldiers died while on duty for the U.S., not the state. Furthermore orders are orders and when an officer (or whoever) violates the orders, they need to be punished swiftly and mercilessly.

[Alberta's Child]

I would like to extend my thanks to you for your service to this great country.

Now you might want to read through this entire thread to see where you are absolutely wrong on a number of points. For one thing, nobody violated an "order" of any kind in this case -- mainly because the U.S. Department of Defense has no authority to give orders to state National Guard personnel on matters of this kind.