Customer Reviews

A Very Long Weekend: The Army National Guard in Korea 1950-1953

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
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As a former member of the 45th Division I found this book an excellent source of information about our Division. It gives a history of the 40th and 45th reactivation by Congress and a chronicle of events from that point to all that transpired in Korea.

It is a hard cover book, consisting of 300 pages, 28 illustrations and 9 maps that brings back long lost memories of what happened to me some 48 years ago...

For anyone who was a member of a National Guard outfit during these years, it is well worth reading.

The National Guard, for the whole of the twentieth century, has been a vital component of American military efforts in times of crisis. This is nowhere better illustrated than in the Korean War, where individuals and units were rushed in to plug holes in Allied lines from the start, often with little notice and sometimes woefully untrained and under-equipped. Their presence may well have been the decisive element in preventing total Red success.
Their story, from truck drivers to infantrymen, is thoroughly researched and well told here with oral histories, good maps, useful appendices, and a generous index.. The only flaw noted is the oddly popular error misnaming the National Guard facility as "Fort Robinson, Arkansas". It was, and remains, Camp Robinson. This does not detract seriously from this highly valuable work, which fills a gap in the history of the Korean War and the essential role of the citizen-soldier.

(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

As a member of the 578th Engr(C) Bn of the 40th Div from the time it was activated thru Korea It brought back a lot of memories . The author is to be congratulated on his accurate story of the National Guard units in the "Forgotten War" It makes one that much more prouder to have served in a Guard outfit......