MN National Guard hopes "Mission Day" events could help boost enlistment
WOODBURY, Minn. — It's mission accomplished - for now. The Minnesota National Guard met its recruiting goal for the first time in four years even though that goal was much lower than before. Roughly 1230 Minnesotans enlisted in the Guard in FY2023, just eclipsing the target of 1200. In 2019, nearly 1,600 enlisted.
"It's really important for people in our community to understand what the National Guard really does," Sgt. 1st Class Isaac Girling explained to WCCO News. "We're here to help the people in our communities. That's the number one thing. We're on-call soldiers is what I tell people."
That message was shared many times on Friday as the Guard held a "Mission Day" event at Woodbury High School. The Guard transformed the gym into a multi-part training course of virtual firefighting and night vision rescues, among other simulators.
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Girling added it was important to show how there's much more to the military than combat.
"That's not the only thing the military is about," he said. "That's a very small portion of what the military's about. We have a lot of different opportunities people aren't aware of and that's why we bring it back to an event like this."
The Guard also hosted a Mission Day event in Faribault, and officials say they hope to hold future events at least once a quarter across the state.