MILITIA HAS PROUD HISTORY IN MISSOURI

A recent Associated Press article told of the long and rich heritage of the Missouri militias, predecessors to today's familiar National Guard. The Missouri Guard traces its lineage to 1808, some 13 years before Missouri became a state. It was that year that Benjamin Wilkinson enlisted a company of infantry at Yosti's Tavern in St. Louis, according to Chief Warrant Officer Tim Roberts, command historian for the Missouri National Guard.

The Guard, then called the militia, fought Shawnee Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe in Indiana. Missouri even prepared to go to war with the Iowa militia in a border dispute in 1839. During the Mexican War of 1846-48, Missouri mobilized 1,500 men. Then, during the Civil War, Missouri militia could be found on both sides of that bitter conflict, with about two-thirds of them on the Union side. A unit composed mostly of St. Joseph men was sent to the Philippines in the fall of 1941, in time to be caught in the collapse of Bataan and Corregidor in early 1942. They endured the awful Bataan Death March and three years of brutal captivity.

We pause to take notice of this long and valuable history of Missourians in service to us all.