A NGAUS Victory Omitted

I just finished reading your excellent Special Legislative Issue of NATIONAL GUARD (April 2006).

But an old Air National Guard airlifter, was a bit miffed that your article, "What Has NGAUS Done for You Lately?" omitted our "dogfight" with the Defense Department over their proposal to eliminate 10 Air Guard heavy airlift organizations in the latter half of the 1960s. This proposal emanated from the proposed merger of the Guard and the Reserve, which you touched upon in the 1961 to 1965 timetrame of the article.

When the merger was successfully defeated, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara fell back on a plan to eliminate the 10 units that had been selected tor merger into the Air Force Reserve.

Delaware Air Guard Brig. Gen. Bill Spruance, a board member of the National Guard Educational Foundation, provided strong and effective leadership and guidance over three of us colonels working out of whatever vacant space turned up in the National Guard Bureau.

We referred to this as our "floating crap game" to research and develop a plan to thwart Mr. McNamara's "Wiz Kid" analysts who were great statisticians but didn't know an aileron from a propeller.

I'm happy to say that we developed a plan by which all but one squadron was retained. Bill Spruance in his own inimitable manner, sold the plan to NGAUS, which then set the grassroots into motion.

The outcome? Only one of the squadrons, the one at Van Nuys, Calif, was lost.

It was an honor and a tremendous learning experience for me to work with that great patriot and Air Guardsman, General Spruance. Winning that crucial battle has been one of the highlights of my career.

Thus, my being somewhat chagrined over the omission.

Retired Maj. Gen. Stan Newman

Oklahoma Air National Guard

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