about national guard historical foundation

VISION

• The VANG HF’s historical and educational vision is to preserve and promote Virginia’s military history through the development of meaningful education programs, museum exhibits, and participation in appropriate events that further the understanding of the past, clarify the present, and provide vision for the future.

MISSION

• Build the Museum of the Virginia National Guard (MVANG). Operate and sustain the Museum. (Hot link jump to Museum page)
• Endow our Soldier and Airman Foundation. Helping our troops…helping our families!
• Reinvigorate our Associations to provide Professional Development & Alumni services. Provide premier Alumni services…for life!
• Recover, restore, and preserve historical artifacts of the VANG and Virginia’s military history.

• Provide a world-class research capability.  

• Develop a Research and Archives Center. This will include the Museum’s library and the VNG historical records file. 
• Produce finished historical products such as scholarly publications, lineage and honors certificates, and information papers. 
• Serve as a repository for historical correspondence, information papers, authority publications, and circulars that not only document the evolution of the Army, but the evolution of policy, doctrine, force structure, and military education as well. 
• Serve as the repository for and coordinator of educational and historical programs. This will support Virginia National Guard’s professional development initiatives.

Foundation Board

COL(Ret) Todd Combee, Board Secretary

“As Chaplains, we are always trying to tell our story so people can understand what we do. The Virginia National Guard Historical Foundation and Museum will help tell the story, our story, of commitment to our nation, and to our communities. The story of neighbor helping neighbor, soldiers deploying to places around the world, families and employers standing with us as we serve, making a difference in our world, telling the story of the Virginia National Guard. Help us tell our story, your story!”

MG Michelle M. Rose

CSM(ret) Carl Holcomb

Meet The FoG

The Historic Foundation’s Volunteer Group: The Friends of the Guard (FoG)

What is the FoG?

One of the more interesting parts of the Historic Foundation is the unique service organization known as the FoG. The acronym is short for “Friends of the Guard,” a name given by Maj. Gen. Williams to the volunteers who refurbish historical macro artifacts for the VANG HF. It started simply enough as two veterans MSG(Ret) Craig Jewell and COL(Ret) James Ebertowski volunteered to work on a badly rusted 1955-dated M42 Duster that had been brought to the JF HQ for display. In time they reached out to other retired veterans in the area who joined them.

The Duster, a self-propelled, open turret anti-aircraft gun, was obtained through the efforts of Maj. Gen. Timothy P. Williams, the Adjutant General of Virginia, and retired Chief Warrant Officer 4 Al Barnes, the Virginia National Guard command historian. The FoG met once a week for more than a year to scrape off the rust and then sand and paint the Duster to get it ready for display. In the meantime, other macro artifacts including a 1942 dated Bofors 40mm Anti-Aircraft Gun, a 155mm Howitzer, a 120mm Soviet mortar, a 1919 French 75mm cannon, a WWII pack howitzer, an M4A3E8 Sherman Tank, an M-84 Armored Mortar Carrier and a WWII DUKW Amphibious vehicle arrived at the Headquarters and took their place on the display pads to the south of the building.

The FoG efforts to preserve these pieces of VANG history has been invaluable. Also refurbished by the group are the M41 Bulldog Tank and the 3 and ½ ton Service Elevator Pulley from the Twin Towers on display in front of the Headquarters have been restored and preserved by the volunteers. One of the next items is the UH-1 Huey which will be mounted above the brick wall sign in front of the Headquarters.

Now numbering 10 members in their group, the FoG donated 1023 hours of volunteer work in 2021. Together they have almost 300 years of combined military service. They include two former Ordnance Corps colonels, a Transportation Corps colonel, a Medical Service Corps colonel, an Aviation major, a combat engineer NCO, a military intelligence NCO, a Navy chief warrant officer 4, an Army command sergeant major and an Army master sergeant. The group includes two Vietnam veterans, three Desert Storm veterans and an Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran. They also include three Defense Language Institute graduates and three former Combined Army Support Command Directors.

FOG PROJECTS YEARS IN REVIEW