Trey vs. The Oregonian

The Oregonian is a JOKE of a newspaper. All writers have their own views which shade their writing, but this whole paper is full of pseudo-news. "News" that isn't news at all covers the front page. Whole headline articles about an opinion, presented as news, when nothing new has actually happened. One particular article attracted my attention. It isn't really about anything that just happened, but expresses concern about National Guard deployments. News would be something like, "The Oregon National Guard deploys on Tuesday...." But this was more of an opinion/editorial based on current events, and it was THE MAIN HEADLINE on the FRONT PAGE.

After reading the article, and noting that it was the second in a three part series on the National Guard, I decided to write a letter to the paper. Unfortunately that was a catastrophic mistake, since the editor rewrote my entire letter and published it without making any mention of their changes, all under my name. I'm aware that there are probably no more than 20 people who will ever read this site, and that only a fraction of these people even live in Oregon, but I will use what voice I have to be heard, thanks to the ultimate tool of equality and democracy, the Internet.

While the Oregonian may have published a bastardized version of my letter, here is the original copy:

SIR – The recent article concerning the role of the National Guard depicted it as a local AmeriCorps. It should be noted that the full name of this organization is the Army National Guard, which reflects its primary purpose as a reserve component of the Army. While the stateside activities of the National Guard are very important, we must keep in mind that these citizen soldiers are not community service volunteers but rather soldiers with duties to both their state and their country.

Army Basic Combat Training is required for all Guardsmen, and teaches them to survive in the modern battlefield and to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemy in close combat. Some of these soldiers go on to become Infantrymen, Scouts and other combat related specialties. Needless to say, this training does not have anything in common with their civic tasks in a time of crisis. Your article described the loss of equipment being sent to Iraq, which you find necessary to perform these community services; night vision goggles, machine guns, trucks and radios. Perhaps a future article could explain how some of this equipment is necessary for fire fighting and filling sandbags, and what these “stay-behind units” could possibly use them for.

In summary, for years we have paid the National Guard to prepare for war and the time has come for them to serve their country as they have sworn to do. While their civic functions remain important, it is a secondary duty. Plenty of local clubs and organizations such as the Red Cross and Volunteer Fire Departments exist solely to assist in times of crisis. The National Guard is not in crisis; they are being deployed to fight the battle that they have trained for.

PFC John Merrell
Cavalry Scout – US Army