Ward Loren Schrantz, of Carthage, Missouri, entered the U.S. Army in 1912, at a time when military leaders were still seriously debating the future of the horse cavalry. He left active military service in 1946, after the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Japan. Schrantz served capably at a time when the U.S. military was undergoing rapid technological and strategic transformation and, as a journalist and attentive observer, left a vivid personal account of his time in the Army and Missouri National Guard. Editor Jeff Patrick has woven three undated versions of Schrantz's memoir into a single narrative focused on the sparsely documented pre–World War I period from 1912 to 1917, thus helping to fill a significant gap in the existing literature. Schrantz's memoir is notable not only for the period it covers, but also for its lively evocation of a soldier's life during the U.S.-Mexico border disturbances of the early twentieth century. Schrantz's account demonstrates the perennial contrast between how soldiers were expected to behave and how they actually behaved; it offers colorful and authentic details not usually available from official histories. Patrick also has added an appendix consisting of the letters that Schrantz wrote for publication in his hometown newspaper, the Carthage Evening Press. These documents yield interesting insights into the attitudes and dispositions of U.S. soldiers during this time, as well as the perceptions and opinions of the "folks back home." Students, scholars, and others interested in military and borderlands history will find much to enjoy in Guarding the Border: The Military Memoirs of Ward Schrantz, 1912–1917.

This book recounts an unique chapter in the National Guard's efforts to keep America's borders secure. Starting in June 2006 and lasting until July 2008, Operation Jump Start exhibited unprecedented cooperation and teamwork among federal agencies engaged in protecting the homeland. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Border Patrol and the National Guard created a cooperative, operational environment that will endure as an example on how to do things right. Based in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas, the Operation's mission was not to close the nation's border with Mexico but to make it more secure for legal immigration and commerce. By the time Operation Jump start ended, criminal activities of all types had declined along the border, and physical improvements made by Guard engineers along the border seemed certain to reduce illegal activities for the forseeable future.

On June 18, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson called up virtually the entire army National Guard, some 150,000 men, to meet an armed threat to the United States: border raids covertly sponsored by a Mexican government in the throes of revolution. The Great Call-Up tells for the first time the complete story of this unprecedented deployment and its significance in the history of the National Guard, World War I, and U.S.-Mexico relations. Often confused with the regular-army operation against Pancho Villa and overshadowed by the U.S. entry into World War I, the great call-up is finally given due treatment here by two premier authorities on the history of the Southwest border. Marshaling evidence drawn from newspapers, state archives, reports to Congress, and War Department documents, Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler trace the call-up’s state-based deployment from San Antonio and Corpus Christi, along the Texas and Arizona borders, to California. Along the way, they tell the story of this mass mobilization by examining each unit as it was called up by state, considering its composition, missions, and internal politics. Through this period of intensive training, the Guard became a truly cohesive national, then international, force. Some units would even go directly from U.S. border service to the battlefields of World War I France, remaining overseas until 1919. Balancing sweeping change over time with a keen eye for detail, The Great Call-Up unveils a little-known yet vital chapter in American military history.

This occasional paper is a concise overview of the history of the US Army's involvement along the Mexican border and offers a fundamental understanding of problems associated with such a mission. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the historic themes addressed disapproving public reaction, Mexican governmental instability, and insufficient US military personnel to effectively secure the expansive boundary are still prevalent today.

The book chronicles the extensive training and heroic service of the New York National Guard's 104th Field Artillery Regiment from the period of 1916 to 1919. The regiment, initially called the 1st Field Artillery Regiment, served as border patrol in Texas during the Mexican Punitive Expedition in 1916, and trained at the gunnery field at La Gloria, Texas. During World War I, they trained by the Glassy Mountains at Camp Wadsworth in South Carolina, and then at the School of Fire of Camp de Souge near Bordeaux, France. Because of this extensive training, elements of the 27th Division were splintered off and placed within a number of other divisions. The 52nd Field Artillery Brigade, under which the 104th Field Artillery Regiment served, was attached to the 33rd Division as their artillery, and then the 79th Division for the entire Meuse-Argonne Offensive near Verdun. Using field diaries, photos and letters, their story of courage under extreme conditions including enemy shelling and gas is recorded and their memory preserved.

"DIVIDED WE FALL delivers cover-to-cover action, intrigue and suspense, all with a gut-punch of an ending that'll leave you begging for the next installment." -- Brad Thor, author of THE LAST PATRIOT Danny Wright never thought he'd be the man to bring down the United States of America. In fact, he enlisted in the Idaho National Guard because he wanted to serve his country the way his father did. When the Guard is called up on the governor's orders to police a protest in Boise, it seems like a routine crowd-control mission ... but then Danny's gun misfires, spooking the other soldiers and the already fractious crowd, and by the time the smoke clears, twelve people are dead. The president wants the soldiers arrested. The governor swears to protect them. And as tensions build on both sides, the conflict slowly escalates toward the unthinkable: a second American civil war.With political questions that are popular in American culture yet rare in YA fiction, and a provocative plot that asks what happens when the states are no longer united, Divided We FAll is Trent Reedy's very timely YA debut.