Fighting New Battles - Arkansas National Guard

The Arkansas Minutemanof interestArkansas National Guard news magazine hits golden anniversaryBy Buddy Garrett – State Information OfficerThe Arkansas National Guard magazineyou are currently reading, Arkansas Minuteman,packaged in a vibrant coloramaof photographs and design pages, is a farcry from its black and white newsprintprototype of 50 years ago. Although thefaces have changed along with the stylesof uniforms, the content is still about themost important element in the ArkansasNational Guard – its people.The trial edition ofRazorback Guardsmanwas printed in May 1956.Orval Faubus was governorand Maj. Gen. Sherman T.Clinger was the adjutantgeneral.“I wish to extend tothe Arkansas Guardsmenmy best wishes for the successof this new publication,”Faubus said. “As it will serveevery member of the Guard, itsfuture growth and developmentshould be assured. I am confidentthat the Razorback Guardsmanwill contribute materially tothe feeling of pride and satisfactionwhich every guardsman has in bothhis home unit and in our entire NationalGuard establishment.”Following its trial edition, the newspaperproduced its first copy – Volume1, Number 1 – in June 1956. Headlinesfrom those two issues sound eerily likethose we might find in today’s news.“Military Equipment Cost Is Tremendous”told a story of Arkansas National Guardhaving an equipment inventory worthover $135 million. “Changes His Mind,Decides He’ll Stay” told how a changein jobs for Sgt. Newton Strandland gavehim the training he wanted for automotivebody mechanic work without him havingto pay for civilian training. “NationalGuard Heritage: Long and Proud Record”explained the benefits offered by the NationalGuard Association.The Arkansas National Guard is adynamic organization and is ever changing.So, too, the flagship publication thatserves as the adjutant general’s voiceand two-way communication tool tokeep Guard members and their familiesinformed of training, deployments andopportunities available to them.Over the years the name of the newspaperchanged to The Minuteman, thenArkansas Guard. The newspaper/newsmagazine was published by the InformationOffice. That, too, has changed. Theoffice is now called the Public AffairsOffice.Sincepublic af-fairswriters are moreconcernedwith telling the Soldiers’ stories,their own names are often left out of thearticles they write, and left to fade withthe passing of time. We don’t regret that.The Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine isthe whole reason we are here. It is theirstories -- need I say YOUR stories? -- thatwe write about. You are more importantthan we. Still, it’s a shame we don’t haveall the names of those folks who wrote orphotographed the hot, dusty annual trainingsor the housing of the Cuban refugeesat Fort Chaffee or the loss of our familymembers from accidents or on the battlefield.Nonetheless, those stories remainin the archives in the Public Affairs Officeand in copies of the magazine at the ArkansasNational Guard Museum on CampRobinson. Public Affairs also sendscopies of the magazine to the ArkansasHistory Commission and to the variousuniversities around the state.Our commitment to history is that“Old Soldiers Never Die, They Just FadeAway” until their stories are brought backto life by those who do research. PublicAffairs writers are well aware that today’snews is tomorrow’s history.So, although we don’t have all thenames let us try to remember those wecan.Recent contributors, still active inother areas of the Guard, include: Col.Cissy Rucker, AASF commander, whoedited the newspaper formany years; Lt. Col CaryShillcut; Capt. Tracy Saucy,Military Support coordinator;Capt. Kristy Munn, whois now with National GuardBureau Public Affairs; BrandieMikesell who worked in PAbefore joining the Family Assistanceteam; Sgt. Leanna Higginbothamwho manages the EmployerSupport of the Guard and Reserveprogram; Master Sgt. Bob Barnett,119th Public Affairs Detachment; andMaj. Craig Heathscott, National GuardBureau.Other names that come to mindare people who worked directly in theInformation Office, or supported the PAprogram, or were members of the PublicAffairs Detachment. Their names arelisted here sans rank: Markham Howe,Ron Addington, Bill Lawson, Jim Cathey,Jerry Pfeifer, Regina Maxim, Jeff Carlton,Gary Burgess, Bill Smith, Buford Barentine,“Weird” Harold Higgins, Bill Craig,Ken Powers, Billy Dixon, Gina Hinkson,Linda Jones, Naomi Howard, and a wholebunch of others to whom we apologize fornot being able to list them at this time.As for Ol’ Buddy … I’m still here. Iedited Arkansas Guard for 17 years. I’mhappy to be the transitional pivot betweenthen and now. The rest of the team needsto be introduced as well. 1st Lt. ChrisHeathscott, state public affairs officer,leads our team. Joining him is Maj. KeithMoore from the Arkansas Air NationalGuard. Adrienne Brietzke is our neweststaff member/information officer. Thatbrings us up to our current editor, Sgt.Chris Durney. Through him, and everyoneelse who points us toward good stories,the magazine will continue to serve… YOU!Page 10 Summer 2006