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National Guard Armory

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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 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. Readiness centers can also be utilized as communal assembly areas, utilized by local organizations and governments.

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. In 1968, the Army National Guard had 2,786 armories; in 2000 the Army National Guard had 3,166 armories in 2,679 communities. 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."

A report to Congress in 2014 noted that some National Guard armories are in poor or failing condition, with "the average nationwide condition fair, but bordering on poor…". 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.

Crime

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

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

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. 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. Several suspects were eventually arrested in 1975. The magnitude of this crime was considered analogous to most dangerous kind of terrorist threats.

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.

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.

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. ^ 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.

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