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[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

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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

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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 as 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

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See also

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Notes

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

References

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  7. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). "One of several instances of burglaries of National Guard Armories and thefts of military weapons..."
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  13. ^ https://ss.sites.mtu.edu/mhugl/2016/10/16/the-origins-and-roles-of-the-michigan-flint-armory-base/
  14. ^ https://chicagology.com/goldenage/goldenage166/
  15. ^ https://www.johnwhigginsarmoryllc.com/
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