WASHINGTON - The National Guard gets better and better every year, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Harry Wyatt, director of the Air National Guard, at a Capitol Hill birthday celebration for the nation's oldest military force here Dec. 9.
"Historians have traced the origins of the National Guard to the first muster on Dec. 13, 1636, in the colony of Massachusetts, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony summoned their militia, and organized them into three regiments in the North, South and East," Wyatt said.
"I'm sure those Guardsmen and soldiers in Massachusetts, back in 1636, could not have imagined the missions that the Guard does today."
"They would probably also be amazed to find that we now number close to half a million Soldiers and Airmen in service to their country."
Other honored guests that were in attendance to wish the Guard a happy birthday included Congressmen Steve Buyer of Indiana, Duncan Hunter from California, Gene Taylor from Mississippi and Christopher Bond of Missouri.
The National Guard Association of the United States hosted the event.