After 69 years of service, the Mott National Guard will be officially closing on Saturday, July 29.
Mott's closing comes as a result of a nationwide downsizing of the National Guard.
"Personnel's gone down across the nation in the National Guard," said William Prokopyk, the North Dakota's National Guard assistant public information officer.
With reduced personnel has come reduced budgets.
"We realized we had to be economically sustainable; we'd have to reduce our footprint," Prokopyk said.
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By the end of the 2017 fiscal year in October, the Army National Guard says they will lose about 15,000 positions nationally and around 300 positions in North Dakota. Up to six other small North Dakota Guard units are slated to, or have already, closed this year. In addition to Mott, National Guard units in Rugby, Bottineau and Grafton are set to close. The Mayville National Guard was also recently incorporated into the Grand Forks unit.
While the National Guard is downsizing, the proportion of Guard members to citizens in North Dakota remains high.
"For every 10,000 citizens in North Dakota, 65 serve in the North Dakota National Guard, a rate that's more than four times the national average," the Guard said in a statement.
Prokopyk said that current members of Mott's National Guard unit will likely be folded into Dickinson or Bismarck units.
Mott historian Kevin Carvell said the warehouse that the National Guard ran will be put into the control of the city while the armory will remain with the school district.
History
The history of Mott's National Guard dates back to 1947, when the federal government first gave them recognition. The building for the National Guard, Mott's armory, was completed in 1952.
Mott's National Guard was extremely active in the Korean War, fighting with the 164th Infantry Regiment. Prokopyk said the 164th was America's "first offensive unit in the (Korean) War," and probably the "most famous (American) unit" of the war.
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According to Carvell, Joseph "Joey" Mathis is the only National Guard soldier from Mott who has died in a foreign war. Mathis died while fighting in the Korean War in 1952.
Though they were not deployed to the Vietnam War, the unit remained active throughout the 1960s and 70s. During this time, the unit acted mostly in engineering and transportation roles and they continued this work through the 1980's and 1990's.
Mott's National Guard was once again activated for foreign combat in the 2000s during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Following a community lunch at 11:30 a.m., there will be a final formation for Mott's past and present soldiers at Mott's National Guard armory at 1 p.m. The ceremony will be open to the public.
