National Guard Actions at Ground Zero Won't Count Toward Retirement

The Al Qaeda murders that took place on September 11, 2001 were the worst attack on America since the British burned the White House during the War of 1812. More people died in lower Manhattan than at Pearl Harbor a half century before. In the aftermath of the attacks, hundreds of US Army National Guard members helped dig for corpses, kept civilians out of the way, and kept watch on the rest of a city that wasn't as brash and as sure of itself as its reputation would have one believe. And in a huge miscarriage of justice, not a single day of that service will count toward their retirement from the military.

The problem, as so often in 21st century America, is a bureaucratic issue. Since the Guard was not engaged in defending and relieving a federal facility, the time spent in serving at Ground Zero is considered state active duty. Naturally, a shrewd student of modern bureaucracy will anticipate that only federal service counts toward retirement. In other words, those who did the exact same work and performed the exact same services at the Pentagon, a federal facility, will get their time counted toward retirement. This extends to those members of the Guard who protected the US Military Academy at West Point as well, a facility that probably doesn't need protecting given the composition of the student body.

In an excellent piece of journalism for New York's Daily News , Maki Becker interviewed Sergeant Francisco Sostre, a member of New York's 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry -- the Fighting 69th. Sergeant Sostre was at the World Trade Center pile for several weeks before getting transferred to West Point. He said, "Compared to Ground Zero, West Point was a luxury. At Ground Zero, we were breathing in all that aftermath. We didn't know if we were safe, if there were bombs or more airplanes coming . . . . It should count equally."

As Tip O'Neill once said, and as many have parroted ever since, "All politics is local." So it is no surprise that a bipartisan effort by New York's congressional delegation is underway to fix this. Congressman Pete King (R-Long Island) and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan) have introduced bills to count the time served in the counties that were declared federal disaster areas. This should sail through faster than the Schiavo bill, but it won't.

The Bush administration has just about broken the US military. Stop-loss orders are forcing troops whose time is up to stay on in combat areas. The Army and Marines are falling short on their recruiting efforts. And the Guard and Reserves have more places than new faces. Counting the time served where the World Trade Center stood, where the troops breathed in asbestos, smoke, powdered cement, burned steel and the smell of the dead, would result in further losses in headcount. The legislation will not get the unanimous support it deserves. "Support the Troops" is turning out to be just another bumper sticker.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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