Questions about Home Guard/Militia units..

[unkated]

Yes, I know this is old, but someone dug it up, so...

Originally Posted by The Rifleman

Just no. The nearest army bases are Fort drum (10 hours drive) or Fort Dix (8 hours drive). By army base standards, neither are large.

Ahem. Ft Devens, NNE of Worcester, Mass, is much closer to Vermont. In RL, it was closed in 1996; with a heightened Cold War stretching into the 1990s, probably not.

It's smaller than Ft Drum; at one point it housed an Infantry Regiment (1945-50); it later housed the 10 Special Forces Group (Airborne), and a training center for the Army Security Agency, a Sig Int organization. And of course, a supply, organization, and command center for New England National Guard units.

OTOH, I suspect the 10th SFG will be long gone by 1998, deployed somewhere. Devens would probably revert to its WW2 role as a training and collection center.

And I agree that by the time someone in the Army gets the bright idea to collect lawn ornaments and to try to get them in working condition, the centralized Army command will not be centralized enough to carry out such an order.

But, I believe that such an activity will occur to people on a more local level far faster....

"Say, Bill, you know that howitzer thing sitting in front of the VFW?"

"That old 105? Yeah. It's been sitting there since the mid-60s. What about it?"

"Could you an John from the Dept of Public Works go take a look at it and see what it would take to get it in working order? To re-militarize it? You were an artilleryman, and John keeps all the town equipment working. Oh, and we found this manual for it in the Framingham armory's record storage room..."

Substitute any other display item for howitzer. It may not work to original spec, but if it moves...

Consider being a bandit crew hitting a town. They hear a heavy engine, and then see a Sherman tank roll slowly toward the edge of town. They look down at their gun trucks, and back at the Sherman's 75mm. Some number will not wait to see if the Sherman has ammo - lack of profit in taking the chance.

And as for the Army.... "You can save your efforts, Lieutenant. We surveyed those three months ago. Here's a list showing their current state - see, all unfit for further use. Some have already been removed for scrap" (to explain why some won't be on view; really, they've been moved to a local garage for refurbishing).

Uncle Ted