Fiscal Note
No fiscal impact.
Title
AMENDED - Honoring our employees who have been called to service with the United States Armed Services.
Body
PREAMBLE
On September 11, 2001 our nation was savagely and brutally attacked without warning by terrorists of Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda terrorist group. Our nation subsequently went to war with the Taliban forces in Afghanistan that had provided aid and comfort to our enemy. In March, 2003, our nation went to war with Iraq and toppled the regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. U.S. military forces have remained in Iraq since that time helping restore that countries infrastructure and securing the country while the Iraqi people form their own democratic government.
The American military has always been unique in its employment of the citizen soldier concept. Officers of little or no formal military education led Washington's troops at Valley Forge; those troops themselves were farmers, tradesmen and common laborers, not professional soldiers. Today's citizen soldier is a member of the US Army Reserves or the US Army National Guard. In their civilian lives they are police officers, nurses, firefighters, store clerks, school teachers, construction workers, moms, dads, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, neighbors, friends, and yes - our coworkers, our City of Madison employees. Although today's American military is much more professional, it is still quite heavily reliant upon the volunteer citizen soldier.
In fact, 45 percent of the US Army's soldiers are members of the Army Reserves or the Army National Guard. Furthermore, the Army Reserves and the Army National Guard contribute to the Army's total force by providing 100 percent of the Army's chemical brigades, interment brigades, Judge Advocate General units, Medical Groups, Railway Units, Training and Exercise Divisions and Water Supply Battalions. The Army Reserve and Army National Guard supply more than 65 percent of the Army's Civil Aff...
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