Reply #46: I got it from my drill sergeant

[jmowreader]

In basic training we had active-duty troops, Army Reservists and Army National Guardsmen.

Sergeant First Class Cloud heard one of the National Guardsmen refer to his service as the "militia" and very carefully explained to all of us that the "militia" as described in the constitution was a citizen army, and the National Guard as it stands today is a government army owned by the governor of a state, not the president of the United States.

He then went on to explain that the Founding Fathers' greatest intent when they created the Constitution was to stem government tyranny. All of them had suffered under it, so it stands to reason they'd want to prevent it. The militia, being comprised of citizens under arms, was the last line of defense against government oppression.

Which makes sense. If Shrub decided to impose martial law one of his first acts would be to federalize the National Guard. Someone would have to stop him, and unfortunately it would come down to a lot of guys with guns.

Sergeant Cloud had a Master's in history from the University of Maryland, so we tended to believe him on this.

He concluded his little five-minute block of instruction on the Constitution by informing us that if he caught any of us calling the National Guard a militia again, we'd have to do a million push-ups in front of him before we were allowed to graduate. Sergeant Cloud was six-ten and could bench 290. We definitely believed him on that.