State Service
History of The Iowa National Guard
Sgt. 1st Class Carolyn Tenney
Floods...
tornadoes,.. blizzards,.. civil disturbances.... State
activations of the Iowa National Guard read like a list of what’s
gone wrong in Iowa. But the timely intervention of the Guard has
averted some serious situations and kept others from becoming
worse. During war and times of peace, Iowa Guard members have
stood ready to protect their fellow citizens.
Natural
disasters have been the most common reason for state call-ups,
thanks to Iowa’s weather. The social climate has caused
state activations, as well.
In 1863.
citizens in Iowa’s less settled regions were alarmed about
the possibility of Indian attacks. Meetings with settlers in
remote counties revealed that Iowans wanted a small force of
mounted men stationed on the east and west forks of the Des
Moines River. These were to be seasoned men who were familiar
with the area, and the habits and customs of the Indians. Almost
immediately, 40 men were on duty—half at Chain Lakes, half
at Estherville. Companies also were raised Sioux City. Denison,
Fort Dodge and Webster City. Portions of companies were kept in
smaller towns. Each man furnished his own horse and equipment
"Subsistence and forage" were furnished by the state.
The year
1864 saw a company of the State Militia from (Grinnell and
Montezuma ordered to the site of the murder of two U.S. marshals
by a band of bushwackers, about 14 miles south of Grinnell on the
road to Oskaloosa. The men responsible were draft dodgers from
Sugar Creek Township in Poweshiek County. Six members of the gang
were arrested, along with a previously captured perpetrator, and
escorted to jail in Oskaloosa.
The next
year. Davis County was victimized by a mounted band of guerillas
dressed in federal uniforms that robbed, terrorized, kidnapped
and murdered many of the county’s citizens. In the chaos
that followed, Col. J.B. Weaver, formerly of the 2nd
Iowa Infantry, assisted by Col. Trimble, took command of a
hastily formed militia and set off in pursuit of the raiders.
Lieutenant James Jackson and other officers planned the defense
of the Davis County seat Soldiers patrolled the roads and the
Missouri border. Over 100 "suspicious persons" were
arrested and turned beck to Missouri. Several weeks later, the
militia captured the rebel bushwhackers’ horses and
equipment Thirteen members of the gang were arrested and returned
to Missouri authorities.
Detachments of two companies from Des Moines were sent to Council
Bluffs in November 1873 to aid in the suppression or prevention
of a threatened prizefight in the vicinity. Trainloads of "roughs"
were arriving to watch. Colonel F. Olmsted, commander of the
state troops, complained to the Adjutant General that the
Pottawattamie County sheriff, to whom they reported, was "weak
and wavering" and making no attempt to arrest the
participants and seize fight paraphernalia. Adjutant General N.B.
Baker then ordered the troops home, criticizing Potawattamie
County officials in his annual report.
He also
wrote that "officers and soldiers called out on such
occasions should be paid at higher rates than now provided by
law," noting that "in nearly every case the private
does not receive one-fifth of the amount he would have been paid
had he remained at his usual labor."
Adjutant
General John Looby discussed the pay situation at length in his
1877 report to the governor. "As the Iowa law now stands, no
aid of any character whatever is granted to the militia. The
officers and men must pay for their own uniforms, they must pay
freight charges on arms shipped to them from the Arsenal, they
must tax themselves to meet all contingent expenses for rent of
armories, for ammunition, and for all other expense—and do
all this for the privilege of standing as a reserve power in the
hands of the Executive for the enforcement of law where the civil
power proves inefficient or powerless. It is a large tax upon the
pocket as well as upon patriotism to expect our citizen soldiery
to give their time, their money and their lives, perhaps, without
any aid or recognition of their services in a practical, business-like
way—a patriotism that does not promise to keep together our
present active organizations very long. There is a limit to the
efforts of citizen soldiery where they are compelled to bear the
whole brunt of expense, save the arms, which are issued to the
State by the Federal Government for the militia, and cost the
State nothing."
Looby
went on to recommend that the state compensate the militia’s
soldiers, and bear the expense of armories, uniforms and
contingencies—following study of the issue by a properly
appointed Committee of the National Guard of Iowa.
In the
next decade, several companies were warned to be ready for duty.
Only a few received orders to take up arms. In March 1885,
members of the Third Regiment in Des Moines cleared the
courthouse yard after a mob wounded two deputies while seeking to
release a prisoner from the county jail. In 1886, companies in
the Second arid Third Regiments were activated in anticipation of
mine troubles at What Cheer and Angus.
In June
1903, the Guard responded to a request by the sheriff of Dubuque
County to help preserve the peace because of a strike. The mere
presence of the Guard for several days averted serious trouble.
In April
1912, members of the 54’ Infantry were activated (including
Company C of Muscatine) because of a strike at various Pearl
Button Manufacturers plants in Muscatine. Troops spent four days
clearing the streets and maintaining order, only to be recalled
later that month. Adjutant General Guy Logan praised the
Guardsmen in his annual report to the Governor: "The troops
on duty performed their duty in an orderly, soldierly manner,
absolutely enforcing law and requiring order at all times and
should be highly commended for such service as the conditions
were in a state of anarchy. The rich, the poor, the employer and
the employee were made to obey the same rule."
The
Adjutant’s General Report of 1914-15 mentions the Guard’s
performance of security at the lowa State Fair, a special duty
that continued off and on through the 1970s. The Guardsmen who
assisted the Iowa State Patrol in this mission were widely
praised for their performance.
Fear of
violence caused the mayor of Sioux City to telephone the Governor
for help in the fall of 1919. W.D. Haywood, president of the
Industrial Workmen of the World, was to give an address to the
citizenry—ironically, at the invitation of the mayor himself.
Companies D and F of the Fourth Infantry remained on duty until
the emergency passed. No arrests were made.
November
1921 saw the Guard ordered to Ottumwa four weeks into a strike at
Morrell Packing Company. The situation was worsening and 150 men
were deputized in that town to patrol the streets until members
of the 168" Infantry arrived. After the troops went on duty,
virtually no attempts of violence toward employees still working
at the plant were reported and the situation remained calm after
the soldiers left.
One of
the best-known state activations was the "Cow Wars" or
"Milk Wars" in 1931. The Governor called Iowa troops
into state service to enforce the law concerning the bovine
tuberculin test conducted by agents of the State Agricultural
Department. About 1,700 troops were sent to Tipton on Sept. 22.
Considerable opposition had been shown to these tests for months.
When active resistance was shown against veterinarians in Cedar
County, the Governor took action. By late afternoon on Sept. 22,
a Guard camp had been established at the fairgrounds just west of
Tipton. The force, commanded by Brig. Gen. Park Findley, included
most of the 168th Infantry and 113th
Cavalry, and about half of the 133th Infantry. Testing of cattle
resumed with a minimum of trouble two days later.
Several
days later, the 133th Infantry was sent home. On Oct. 3, all of
the units returned home, except for about 300 Guard members who
volunteered for additional duty. The 300 who remained fanned a
provisional battalion and stayed on duty until the testing in
Cedar and Muscatine Counties was completed. They moved to Mount
Pleasant when serious opposition was experienced in Henry County.
They moved to Des Moines County, where the situation worsened.
The 133th Infantry, 168th Infantry and 113th
Cavalry were mobilized again.
A staff
correspondent for The Iowa Guardsman wrote, "Iowa soldiers
often were on duty from early morning until evening, subjected to
taunts and insults.. .but the discipline and self-discipline
taught and practiced caused them to emerge from the campaign with
all credit and honor. In but one instance was violence used, and
that in self defense"
The
unnamed writer went on to describe how Cavalry troops once spent
22 hours in the saddle in Lee County because the roads were
impassable to motor vehicles. "They accomplished their
mission, and established, as far as is known, a record unique in
the peacetime annals of the National Guard," he noted.
Not all
activations could be called "official." In 1948, Des
Moines units were canvassed for volunteers to portray Roman
soldiers, wise men and prophets in the local Junior Chamber’s
"Passion Play." In this instance, "staging of
troops" took on a whole new meaning.
The
Guard’s first post-World War II civil disturbance mission
occurred on May 20, 1948. Governor Robert Blue ordered about 1,000
Guardsmen to duty because of strike-related rioting at the gates
of the Rath Packing Company in Waterloo. During the 21-day
activation, soldiers with fixed bayonets encircled the plant
while others escorted truckloads of livestock and patrolled
streets in the area. Order was restored without serious incident.
Clinton
bore the brunt of an Easter Day ice storm in 19~). Limbs, utility
poles, entire trees, communication and power lines, were all
downed by a heavy coating of ice. Streets were blocked and
communications and power were cut off. Governor Beardsley called
for the Iowa Guard to assist in cleaning up the city and
restoring order. Approximately 285 Guard members from Cedar
Rapids, Clinton, Davenport and Dubuque took part in "Operation
Limb Lift" for 14 days.
The Iowa
Guard fought weather-related problems on two fronts in 1952, when
both the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers flooded. More than 2,400
Guard members spent 30 days patrolling and reinforcing levees,
ferrying supplies, restoring communications, and keeping order in
flood-threatened communities.
The Iowa
Air National Guard aided 200 students and nuns, left homeless by
a fire that destroyed the principal building of Ottumwa Heights
Academy, in October 1957. A detachment of Guardsmen took much-nec4ed
bedding and kitchen supplies from Des Moines to the Academy’s
temporary quarters at the old Ottumwa Naval Air Station. Governor
Herschel Loveless, himself an Ottumwan, called the fire a
disaster and noted that "in the case of a disaster it is the
duty of the state to do everything in its power to help."
One of
the Army and Air Guard’s most extensive security efforts
occurred in 1959, when 1,000 Guard members were chosen to "provide
aid to civil authorities, handle traffic and safeguard and
protect Premier [Nikita] Krushchev and his party. Operation K"
was comprised of three task forces: one for the highways, one for
the Roswell Garst farm and adjoining areas at Coon Rapids, and a
third at Iowa Sate University in Ames.
Khrushchev, Chairman of Ministers of the USSR was on a 13-day
visit to the U.S. Only in Iowa did be travel any great distance
over public highways. A half-hour before Khrushchev’s party
passed any given point, Operation K made sure the area was sealed
off completely. Abandoned buildings, clumps of bushes, bridges,
culverts, towers, and more all were checked. The Soviet Premier
rarely saw a Guardsman; the purpose of Operation K was one of
security, not "show,"
The
early ‘60s brought more weather-related duty to the Iowa
Guard. Guard members and equipment were mobilized to fight
flooding on a broad front in April1960.
In March
1961, the Cedar River was the location of their efforts.
State
call-ups can be grim, particularly when downed aircraft are
involved. A Continental Airlines jet blew apart over southern
Iowa, near Centerville, on May 23, 1962. All 45 persons aboard
were killed. About 60 Guardsmen searched for bodies and wreckage
and kept unauthorized persons from the scene. They assisted
federal and local authorities until relieved by regular Army
personnel from Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
April
and May 1965 saw the Iowa Guard perform an astonishing 27,480
mandays fighting flooding statewide.
"Road
Runner" missions in the ‘60s enabled Guard members help
police with traffic control during holiday weekends.
The
threat of civil disturbances not related to striking workers
became more prevalent during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.
From June 10- Aug. 28, 1967, Guard members spent 2,667 mandays on
alert, training with the Des Moines Police Department and the
Iowa Highway Patrol. They never took to the street, but a Guard
contingent provided security at the State Fair that year and the
next. Drunkenness was the main problem.
Troops
were assigned to Des Moines for four days in April 1968 when
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. They were back a year
later on the anniversary of his death.
Meanwhile, the
extremes of Iowa weather kept up the demand for Guard assistance.
Devastating tornadoes struck Charles City and Oelwein in May of
‘68. Iowa Guard units rushed in to help.
The 133th
Infantry was mobilized when the Cattle Congress was held in
Waterloo in September 1968. Agitators were looking for large
audiences. The Guard was called out. No disturbances of
consequence occurred.
Severe
flooding took place in April and early May of 1969. The Guard
helped communities along the Mississippi River and in the
Cherokee area. Guard members also helped Oakville recover from
flooding in July.
Des
Moines firefighters went on strike April 28,1969. Guardsmen
helped fire department supervisors and police man the trucks for
a week. They stayed downtown at the Red Horse Armory.
Civil
disturbances resurfaced in May 1970 at the University of Iowa.
The entire 34th Military Police Battalion was ordered
to Iowa City because of a student strike in the aftermath of the
tragedy at Kent State. Highways were closed, property was
damaged, and the University ended up shutting down for the year.
The MPs were on duty for six days.
The Des
Moines Police Department was bombed May 13.1970, with dynamite
stolen from a Johnston business. MPs guarded the highway patrol
communications tower (which wasn’t fenced in at the time)
and Camp Dodge well into July.
From
that point until the late ‘70s, state call-ups were largely
in response to needs relating to weather, transportation, traffic
control, the Iowa State Fair, and searches and rescues. Then came
the historic visit of the Pope to Living History Farms in Des
Moines.
One
thousand Guard members, plus 1,000 law enforcement personnel,
took on the incredibly complex task of providing security and
controlling a crowd equal to the size of the greater Des Moines
area population.
A 10-mile
by 10-mile urban and rural area was sealed off at 6 p.m. the
evening before the Pope’s visit, and access was strictly
controlled until after the Pope left. Former Deputy Adjutant
General Harold Thompson (then Colonel) was officer-in-charge of
the undertaking. Brig. Gen. Richard Gieth was commander of
troops, and Col. (now retired) Jerry Gorden served as operations
officer.
Gorden
reported no incidents. The only accident, he said, occurred when
two police cars ran into each other. "The whole city was
cooperative," Garden recalled. "The ecumenical feeling
was strong."
The 1980s
began with the Guard responding to windstorms in Burlington and
Mount Pleasant (July 1980) and hostage situations at Fort Madison
State penitentiary (Sept/Oct 1981). Toward the end of the decade,
the Guard aided drought-stricken farmers across Iowa (1988, 1989).
Tragedy
struck on July 19,1989, when United Airlines Flight 232 crashed
at the Sioux City Gateway Airport. Guard members were on the
scene immediately, helping save lives. More than 20 Iowa Guard
units provided personnel to help officials with the grim
aftermath. Members of the Air Guard’s 185th
Fighter Wing and the Army Guard’s 2-133th (M) Infantry were
immediate responders.
Gorden
recalls the modesty shown by Lt. Col. Dennis Neilsen, 185th
Fighter Wing, at being called a hero when he carried a child to
safety—a moment caught on film and later memorialized in a
bronze statue near the crash site. "God saved the child—I
just carried him out," Neilsen said. Gorden says that
rationale is typical of Guard members—that they perceive
themselves as "just doing their duty," rather than as
heroes.
Both
floods and drought ushered in the spring of 1990. Intermittent
flooding occurred in 1991 and 1992. Then came the infamous Rood
of ‘93, a statewide operation that consumed more mandays and
dollars than any other state activation.
None of
the 30 operations I participated in ever gave me more
satisfaction than the Rood of ‘93," said Gorden. "We
found solutions for problems no one had ever heard of. The
leadership, the management of troops, the logistics—it all
was exciting and heart-filling. I always was proud of the Iowa
Guard."
Gordon
reflected over State Fair security operations, the Ankeny
tornado, the Pope’s visit, and the Flood of ‘93: "All
those faces that were there with me...! think they shared a
‘run to the fight’ attitude. There was no holding back.
It was great to be with a bunch of people who felt that way.
The
citizens we supported needed us, showed it. and appreciated it,"
Garden said. "When you’re dog tired, that’s what
keeps you going, State activations are the Guard at its absolute
best."
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