Bring Our Troops Home made an urgent demand to Kentucky governor Andy Beshear on Monday. They are asking that portions of the Kentucky National Guard be pulled from their current deployment in East Africa and be assigned to help disaster relief in Kentucky.
“The photos and stories coming out of Kentucky are devastating to see and hear, and are even more heart-wrenching being this close to Christmas,” said Sgt. Dan McKnight, who founded Bring Our Troops Home in 2019. “When natural disasters like this strike, it reminds all of us why the United States National Guard is so crucial for providing the necessary manpower and know-how in an emergency response. There’s a reason the Guard’s motto is ‘Always Ready, Always There.’”
Bring Our Troops Home has pushed for legislators across the country to sponsor “Defend the Guard” bills, which would prohibit a state’s National Guard from being deployed into active combat without a formal declaration of war. Over 40 states may see versions of this bill introduced in 2022.
“If Kentucky had ‘Defend the Guard’ on the law books, those men and women would already be clearing rubble, searching for survivors, and distributing food and medical assistance instead of patrolling the Horn of Africa 8,000 miles away from home,” McKnight added. “Our organization is incredibly grateful to work with patriotic and far-sighted legislators like Senator Adrienne Southworth, who knows that the Kentucky National Guard’s first priority should be the people of Kentucky, not military bases in Africa.”
