IIRC the 49th was in Chicago awaiting shipment overseas when TDM came? For the life of me I can NOT see a heavy division shipping out of a Great Lakes port for ANY reason. There are too many other ports available. More of the genius of the designers for what ever the reason. 49th would have departed Corpus Christi, Beaumont and Galveston, just like the 1st Cav, 2nd Armor and 3rd Cav. WITH a sizeable escort IMO.
But if they had not been deployed by TDM (which I still find hard to comprehend keeping a heavy in the states while sending lights to NATO) and were in Chicago, and word arrived the Mexican's had invaded, I would see the whole division hitting the road for Texas.. MilGov--CivGov be damned, Texas is being invaded. As for personnel drifting off/deserting. The going to their home might be plausable, but as is pointed out, it would probably be whole units from ie Alice, since a few leaving would have to face the rest evenutally.. you have deserted your neighbors when you desert the unit.
Now on another side of the picture. My son was in the TxANG in '90, having just returned from a 4-year RA kick as an Airborne Ranger, and cherry popping in Panama. He was in a local battalion in South Texas. He would come home from drills so damn mad it was almost funny if it wasn't so serious. They went to Falfurias training area... with NO water to speak of, IN the summer. Had guys going tits up from heat. The leadership was abismal in that unit. The same unit was tagged to go to Honduras (iirc) for a training mission.. it took volunteers from three battalions to get one capable of going... mostly due to failing the drug test. When Iraq invaded Kuwait he reupped in the regulars, "I'm not going to war with those idiots, they'll just get somebody killed, namely themselves."
Yes they are Texians.. and generally are a good bunch of soldiers, but there are weak points in every unit.
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04-30-2012, 08:04 AM
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