Kentucky Guard

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Category: KyNG History

Kentucky guardsmen support 250th anniversary parade
June 15, 2024 — The Kentucky National Guard 103rd Brigade Support Battalion out of Harrodsburg, proudly supported the 250th anniversary of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, by providing 71 Soldiers, four vehicles, color guard, and marching during the parade throughout downtown on June 8, 2024. ... MORE

Kentucky Army National Guard Soldiers with the 103rd Brigade Support Battalion, 138th Field Artillery Brigade, prepare to post the colors for the 250th anniversary of the settlement of Harrodsburg at the Old Fort Harrod State Park in Harrodsburg, Kentucky on June 8, 2024. The 103rd BSB supported the 250th anniversary of the settlement of Harrodsburg by participating in posting the colors, marching in the parade, and providing a static display of military vehicles. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Dickson)

Retired Guardsman donates missing KY National Guard magazines
February 16, 2024 — In January 2024, a retired public affairs officer donated forgotten pieces of Kentucky’s military history to the Kentucky National Guard Public Affairs Office in Frankfort. Retired Army Col. Tom Little was preparing his belongings for a move into a new home when he came across his old military documents. Among those documents were copies of previously published issues of The Kentucky Guardsmen and The Bluegrass Guard. These printed newsletters were under his responsibility when he served as the commander of the 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment (MPAD) during the 1970s and 1980s... MORE

Retired Army Col. Tom Little looks through old issues of the Kentucky Guardsman at a local restaurant in Lexington, Kentucky on Jan. 17, 2024. Little, former commander of the 133rd Mobile Public Affairs detachment, donated almost 40 issues from his personal collection to the Kentucky National Guard to help preserve it's history. (Kentucky National Guard photo by Andy Dickson)

Letters from Bataan: A Kentucky POW’s letters found after 75 years
April 13, 2023 — This month marks 81 years since the Bataan Death March in the Bataan Peninsula during World War II. Almost every member of the military can tell you the power of receiving mail during times of training; it’s hard to remember but many years ago, letter writing was the only form of communication while in basic training and overseas deployments for centuries before the days of cell phones and the internet. Finding the letters, as a historian, is also very vital to putting together the story of how our troops lived while at training. The author tends to write a detailed picture of their day-to-day life, how they spent their training, who was with them, and how they spent their off time... MORE

Kentucky Army National Guard Sgt. Jennings Bryan Scanlon from the Service Record, World War I and II in an undated photo album. Scanlon mobilized to the Philippine Islands with the 192nd Tank Battalion shortly before World War II began in the Pacific and was captured as part of the Bataan Death March. Scanlon died shortly after in a POW Camp. (Photo courtesy of the Harrodsburg, Ky. veterans' community).

Time capsule left by decorated Kentucky Guard MP unit found in Fort McCoy barracks nearly two decades after unit left for Operation Iraqi Freedom
March 20, 2023 — In November 2004, the 617th Military Police Company of the Kentucky National Guard was one of many military units completing their mobilization at Fort McCoy for deployment. It was in that month the unit wrapped up their training at Wisconsin’s only Army installation and prepared to head off to Iraq for a year deployment for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Before they left, however, some members of the unit decided they'd put together a “time capsule” of sorts in a plastic drawer they got from the Fort McCoy Exchange, put some mementos in it, and stash it away in the walls of one of the hundreds of barracks on the installation’s cantonment area... MORE

Soldiers with the Kentucky National Guard’s 617th Military Police Company are shown ikn November 2004 at Fort McCoy, Wis. The unit, before they were deployed to Iraq, were mobilized at Fort McCoy and had left a time capsule in a barracks at McCoy that was discovered in late 2022 by contractors working on Fort McCoy barracks. The company placed the makeshift time capsule in the walls of the barracks thinking they’d come back to it after their deployment completed in 2005 but they forgot about it. The 617th completed their mobilization at Fort McCoy from October to November 2004 and then their demobilization a year later. The unit also is one of the most decorated combat National Guard military police units after completing that deployment. (Contributed photo)

Kentucky National Guard celebrates 230th birthday
June 27, 2022 — Airmen and Soldiers from across the Commonwealth gathered in Louisville, Kentucky, June 24, 2022, to celebrate the 230th birthday of the Kentucky National Guard, one of the nation’s oldest state militias... MORE

Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Wilkinson, left, the Kentucky National Guard’s assistant adjutant general for Air; Airman 1st Class Maryah Bridges, center left; Spc. John Stark, center right; and Col. Joe Gardner, the Kentucky Guard’s Chief of Staff for Army, cut a ceremonial cake during a celebration honoring the 230th birthday of the Kentucky Guard in Louisville, Ky., June 24, 2022. The organization was established in 1792 by Gov. Isaac Shelby, 19 days after the Commonwealth became the 15th state of the Union. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Dale Greer)

A letter to the troops about Juneteenth
June 19, 2022 — The Chief of the National Guard Bureau (CNGB) released a letter to Soldiers and Airmen through email and social media recognizing Juneteenth signed and dated on June 8, 2022. In the letter, Gen. Daniel Hokanson and Chief Master Sgt. Tony L. Whitehead, senior enlisted adviser to the National Guard Bureau, gave a brief history of the significance of the date and the occasion it celebrated. ... MORE

Letter to the Soldiers and Airmen of the National Guard Bureau written by Gen. Daniel Hokanson and Chief Master Sgt. Tony L. Whitehead about the significance of Juneteenth

Today marks the 150th Anniversary of the death of Lieutenant Hugh Wilson McKee.
June 11, 2022 — Navy Lieutenant Hugh Wilson McKee was a native of Lexington, Kentucky, where he was born on April 23, 1844. Hugh was the youngest son of William Robertson and Jane Wilson McKee and named after his maternal grandfather, Hugh Wilson. His father, Colonel William R. McKee was a graduate of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point and in 1847, was killed while leading the Second Kentucky Foot at the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican War. Hugh’s older brother, George Wilson McKee followed in their father’s footsteps, graduating West Point in 1863. During the Civil War George served in the Union Army, as a Major of Ordinance and commander of the Frankford Arsenal at Philadelphia... MORE

Hugh Wilson McKee, US Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Brigadier General Jackson Morris, 29th Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky, 1920-1923.
February 1, 2022 — Jackson Morris, lawyer, politician, sportsman and soldier was born February 1st, 1875, at Crockettsville, Breathitt County, Kentucky. One of seven children born to Nacy W. and Louise Spicer Morris. The Morris family was of the Baptist Church faith, which he followed throughout his life. As a teenager, he became a Mason. He was fraternally affiliated with Pineville Lodge, A. F. and A. M.; Pineville Chapter, R. A. M.; London Commandery, K. T.; Kosair Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Louisville, and the Lodge of Odd Fellows at Frankfort... MORE

Jackson Morris while serving in World War I.

George Lee McClain, Adjutant General of Kentucky 1935-1939
January 23, 2022 — The thirty-fourth Adjutant General of Kentucky was George Lee McClain, born on January 23, 1895, at Bloomfield, Nelson County, Kentucky. George was the only son of William Thomas and Nina Cochrane McClain. By 1900, his father had moved the family to Bardstown, where young George received his initial education in the local schools... MORE

Isaac Shelby – Placing the Commonwealth and the Kentucky Militia on a Strong Footing
January 4, 2022 — Isaac Shelby served as the first and fifth Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Kentucky. Shelby was the right man at the right time, his political insight and his participation and military leadership in America’s Colonial Wars was of paramount importance in the organization and development of the Commonwealth and her militia. Before his settling in Kentucky, he had served in the state legislatures of Virginia and North Carolina. He also served as a soldier in Lord Dunmore’s War, the American Revolutionary War, and as Governor of Kentucky would serve in the War of 1812. Governor Shelby led Kentucky Troops in the Battle of the Thames, an action that would end hostilities in the Old Northwest Territory during the War of 1812. For his gallantry at the Battle of the Thames he was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in March 1818. ... MORE

The Eighth Kentucky and the Battle Above the Clouds
November 24, 2021 — Every war has its iconic images or photographs, capturing for posterity, depicting a moment defining a battle or conflict. During the Second World War, one such moment was captured on February 23, 1945, with the Stars and Stripes being raised over Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima, by five Marines. Just over eighty years before this event, six Union Soldiers from Kentucky, were captured in a photograph accomplishing a similar mission atop Lookout Mountain, located near Chattanooga, Tennessee, during what would become known as the “Battle Above the Clouds.” ... MORE

B/W image of planting of the flag on Lookout Mountain.

Kentucky National Guard documented in Kentucky visual history series
November 23, 2021 — Soldiers and Airmen of the Kentucky National Guard will be featured in a photo series documenting Kentuckians, to include Soldiers training at Wendell H. Ford Regional Training Center in Greenville, Ky., in November 2021. James Southard, a fine arts photographer with the Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project (KDPP), wanted to include the Kentucky National Guard in the visual history series after conducting his own research on his father’s military career. ... MORE

James R. Southard, a photographer for the Kentucky Documentary Photography Project, stands for a portrait at the Wendell H. Ford Regional Training Center in Greenville, Ky. on November 12th, 2021. Southard is documenting members of the Kentucky National Guard to be a part of the visual history of Kentuckians (U.S. Army photo by Andrew Dickson).

Kentucky National Guard Veteran restores howitzer
October 20, 2021 — A retired Kentucky National Guard member returned a decommissioned Howitzer to its former glory on Boone National Guard Center in Frankfort, Ky., during the summer of 2021... MORE

Retired Lt. Col. Dick Stoops describes an M114A2 Howitzer on Boone National Guard Center in Frankfort, Ky on May 10, 2021. Stoops restored the decommissioned gun during the summer of 2021 (U.S. Army photo by U.S. Army Sgt. Jesse Elbouab).

Charge of the Forlorn Hope
October 6, 2021 — The “Charge of the Forlorn Hope” during the Battle of the Thames on November 5, 1813, was one of the most heroic events in the annals of Kentucky’s Military History, in which twenty Kentuckians rode in the face of an enemy to certain death, to attract their fire, so that their companions might make an advantageous assault... MORE

1840
Lithograph

stone: 37.15 × 62.23 cm (14 5/8 × 24 1/2 in.)
Mabel Brady Garvan Collection
1946.9.356
Geography:
Made in United States
Status:
Not on view
Culture:
American
Period:
19th century
Classification:
Works on Paper - Prints
Provenance:
Mabel Brady Garvan Collection, to 1946; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.

Remembering 9/11
September 11, 2021 — Today we hold in remembrance those we lost in the attacks on September 11, 2001. Beginning at 8:46 a.m., Flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center, and 17 minutes later, Flight 175 struck the south tower. A third flight, Flight 77, hit the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. Passengers of the fourth and final passenger airplane, Flight 93, learned about the deliberate attacks and would take back control of the plane, forcing it to impact in a field in western Pennsylvania. The nation learned shortly after that these were terroristic attacks on Americans from 19 terrorists linked to al-Qaeda. In total, 2,977 people were killed because of the hijackings... MORE

Photoshop illustration by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Alan Royalty for use in the Bluegrass Guard publication and historical summary of Kentucky National Guard on attacks of 9/11.

“To Meet the Enemy on Any Element”
September 10, 2021 — On February 8, 1813, Oliver Hazard Perry was ordered to Sacket’s Harbor, New York, for duty on Lake Erie. Once he arrived at Erie, Pennsylvania, he began setting in motion his campaign on Lake Erie. Today, few Kentuckians know of the role Kentucky’s Militia played in Perry’s ultimate victory on September 10, 1813, at the Battle of Lake Erie. ... MORE

Battle of Lake Erie. , 1893. [New York:publisher not transcribed] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018756278/

Klackner, C., copyright claimant.

Davidson, J.O., artist.

Bee Rife Osborne: Kentucky National Guard’s First Military Aviator
May 27, 2021 — On May 18, 1918, the first American-built airplane took to the skis over the Romorantin Aerodrome outside of Paris, France, at its controls was a native of Woodford County, Kentucky, Captain Bee Rife Osborne. The significance of this historic first flight of an American aircraft piloted by an American officer was an indication to her allies and enemies that American was truly and completely commented to the war effort, with men, material and industry... MORE

Happy Birthday, Bluegrass Marchers!
April 6, 2021 — April 6, 2021, marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of the 202nd Army Band. It was organized and federally recognized on April 6, 1921, in the Kentucky National Guard at Bowling Green as the Band Section, Service Company, 149th Infantry, an element of the 38th Division (later redesignated as the 38th Infantry Division)... MORE

Kentucky State Guard 1917 - 1920
March 25, 2021 — In February 1917, mob violence erupted in Murray, Kentucky, during the trial of Lube Martin who was accused of killing policeman, Guthrie Duiguid... MORE

The Kentucky National Guard and the William Floyd Collins Tragedy at Sand Cave
February 10, 2021 — On Jan. 30, 1925, around 10 a.m., cave explorer William Floyd Collins, better known as Floyd Collins, became trapped by a falling rock while exploring Sand Cave near Cave City, Ky. He was looking for undiscovered caverns and a new entrance to Mammoth Cave. The Kentucky National Guard was called in to support rescue efforts... MORE

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