National Guard Armory

The Kansas Army National Guard armory in Concordia, Kansas is a typical building used for the National Guard programs in the United States.

A National Guard Armory, National Guard Armory Building, or National Guard Readiness Center[note 1] is any one of numerous buildings of the U.S. National Guard where a unit trains, meets, and parades. A readiness center supports the training, administration, and logistics of National Guard units by providing assembly space, classrooms, weapons and protective personal equipment storage, and training space.[2]: 4  Readiness centers can also be utilized as communal assembly areas, utilized by local organizations and governments.[2]: 45 

History

After World War II, the Section 5 Committee of the Office of the Chief of Staff, War Department, chaired by MG Milton Reckord, approved a policy of constructing National Guard armories using 75% federal and 25% state funding.[3] In 1968, the Army National Guard had 2,786 armories;[4] in 2000 the Army National Guard had 3,166 armories in 2,679 communities.[5] In 2009, the Kansas Adjutant General's Department announced it would be closing 18 of its then-56 National Guard armories "due to state budget cuts."[6]

A report to Congress in 2014 noted that some National Guard armories are in poor or failing condition, with "the average nationwide [Readiness Center] condition [being] fair, but bordering on poor…".[2]: 10  The report noted that the $377 million annual expenditure for constructing and improving readiness centers would produce "major long-term risks," and recommended more than quadrupling annual funding to "get to green" on key performance indicators by completely transforming and modernizing the portfolio of readiness centers.[2]: 13–14 

Crime

In the 20th century, a number of national guard armories were the target of burglaries and weapons theft.[7]

Bonnie and Clyde acquired many of the weapons used for their crime sprees, such Browning Automatic Rifles, through theft from National Guard Armories.[8]

Some of the burglaries were linked to radicalism, as in the case of Katherine Ann Power, who stole weapons from multiple armories in the 1970s.[9] A particularly notable case in 1974 involved the theft of a huge arms cache from the Compton National Guard Armory in California, in which nearly 100 M-16 rifles and several rocket launchers were stolen.[10] Several suspects were eventually arrested in 1975. The magnitude of this crime was considered analogous to most dangerous kind of terrorist threats.[11]

In 1995, former soldier Shawn Nelson stole an M60A3 tank from a National Guard armory in San Diego and went on a rampage throughout the city until he was shot dead by police.[12]

Specific armories in the United States

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The name readiness center is deemed to reflect the recently-expanded responsibilities of the National Guard.[1]

References

  1. ^ Dunn, Conor (May 27, 2014). "National Guard opens $18M G.I. Readiness Center". The Grand Island Independent. Archived from the original on April 19, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d Readiness Center Transformation Master Plan: Final Report to Congress (PDF) (Report). Army National Guard. December 19, 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 28, 2016.
  3. ^ Milton Reckord papers, University of Maryland Libraries, hdl:1903.1/1281
  4. ^ Annual Report, Chief National Guard Bureau, Fiscal Year 1968, 1968, archived from the original on May 4, 2021
  5. ^ National Trust for Historic Preservation; National Guard Bureau (2000), Still Serving: Reusing America's Historic National Guard Armories (PDF), p. 5, archived from the original (PDF) on July 30, 2022
  6. ^ "Adjutant General Announces Location Of 18 Armory Closures" (Press release). Kansas Adjutant General's Department. December 11, 2009. Archived from the original on July 5, 2022. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
  7. ^ Investigation, United States Federal Bureau of (1969). Annual Report - Federal Bureau of Investigation. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. p. 18. "One of several instances of burglaries of National Guard Armories and thefts of military weapons..."
  8. ^ Miller, Wilbur R. (20 July 2012). The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An Encyclopedia. SAGE Publications. p. 260. ISBN 978-1-4833-0593-6.
  9. ^ "Ex-Fugitive Gets Prison Term in '70 Armory Theft". Los Angeles Times. 25 November 1993. Archived from the original on November 1, 2022.
  10. ^ "Huge Arms Cache Is Stolen on Coast From an Armory". The New York Times. 6 July 1974. Archived from the original on November 1, 2022.
  11. ^ Westbury, Judith; Reinstadt, RN (1980). "MAJOR CRIMES AS ANALOGS TO POTENTIAL THREATS TO NUCLEAR FACILITIES AND PROGRAMS" (PDF). US MIL. Rand Corporation. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 17, 2022.
  12. ^ Rotella, Sebastian; Kraul, Chris (1995-05-19). "Tank's Driver Beset by Drug, Money Problems". Los Angeles Times. San Diego. ISSN 2165-1736. OCLC 3638237. Archived from the original on 2020-05-25. Retrieved 2022-11-11.