The U.S. Army Reserve made good on its promise to hold an “open house” on having some of its soldiers marching through Hayden one Sunday morning in almost full gear as part of a training exercise.

Sort of.

The “house” was open Wednesday night, but it was reminiscent of that old ‘60s poster: “Suppose they gave a war, and nobody came?”

A half-dozen men in camouflage BDUs showed up at the Hayden City Hall and occupied the council chamber on Wednesday night, and waited for anyone wanting to question them about an exercise last month which involved several platoons marching along neighborhood streets. As reported earlier in Spin Control, it didn’t cause much concern in town, but pictures of troops in full packs and M-16s began circulating on the Web, with some comments about how this was all a prelude to the government declaring marial law or coming to take away personal firearms.

The event was planned with minimal notice, and the good folks of Hayden either didn’t know or didn’t care. Other than someone from the Hayden city staff who let the soldiers in and out, and a janitor to clean up afterwards, the only person not connected with the military in some manner was a reporter.

And the Army Reserve couldn’t have been happier…

 

Above photo first appeared on SteveQuayle.com, attributed to “Pam”

A platoon of reservists from the 455th Engineering Co. took a walk down a street in Hayden, Idaho, last month and made a right turn into the blogosphere.

Out there, they inadvertently fan the flame for folks worried that any minute now, the gummint’s coming to get your guns, yank down your  Stars and Stripes, and make you put a hand on the Koran to swear allegiance to the New World Order.

That wasn’t where the soldiers of the 455th were headed when they left the Hayden Reserve Center during their one-weekend-a-month obligation on Feb. 8. They were basically trying to make do, after the heavy snow forced them to cancel the scheduled exercise, and their company commander decided to go to Plan B.