Today is the 375th birthday of one of the finest institutions this nation has ever created, the National Guard. The Massachusetts colony was founded in 1630. Owing to the fact that help was a good couple months away, the Massachusetts General Court on December 13, 1636, then sitting in Salem, decreed that all able bodied men between 16 and 60 would join the militia. Thus was born the National Guard. The decree required periodic training for the citizen soldiers. Each of the North, East and South regiments were self sufficient, as was each and every outpost in the new world. Self sufficiency and self defense have remained the conerstone of that service, though the definition of both have changed through the years. Soon other colonies adotped similar models. The Commonwealth's Guard has been in contiuous service for the longest time of any on this continent since its inception 375 years ago today. So thank you to the Guard and all Guardsmen and women. Without you, the colony doesn't survive, the free nation would not have been born, we don't win every war we've ever fought and I do not go to bed tonight without worrying about my freedom or the continuation of a free country for my children.
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