Missouri National Guardsman supports presidential inauguration

  • Published
  • By 139th Airlift Wing
  • Joint Task Force DC/PA
Missouri National Guardsman and Kansas City, Mo., resident, Tech. Sgt. Michael Crane was one of more than 6,000 citizen Soldiers and Airmen supporting the 57th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, D.C., Jan. 21, 2013. Crane is assigned to the 139th Airlift Wing public affairs office at Rosecrans Air National Guard Base, St. Joseph, Mo.

Crane is among more than 30 Guardsmen selected to provide public affairs, photographic, and videography support to the District of Columbia National Guard public affairs office. On inauguration day, National Guardsmen provided crowd management at the metro station, and traffic control, communication, and ceremonial support to civil authorities.

The military has provided support to the inauguration since April 30, 1789 when the Army, the National Guard and Revolutionary War veterans escorted President George Washington to his first inauguration ceremony in New York, the then U.S. capital city.

The District of Columbia National Guard has participated in every inauguration since President Abraham Lincoln's 1861 inauguration where Lincoln received his first salute from a D.C., Guardsman. For the last several years, the D.C. National Guard has extended the invitation to the state's National Guard units, giving them the opportunity to volunteer to be part of the military's support of the multi-faceted presidential inauguration.

Crane has served 10 years in the Missouri Air National Guard. He traveled to Panama in 2007 to provide public affairs support for the State Partnership Program between Missouri and Panama. In 2012, Crane spent two months at the Air National Guard's Training and Education Center at McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base, Knoxville, Tenn., producing broadcast stories for the Air Guard's Minuteman Report, a daily news program which broadcasts on the Pentagon Channel and the Armed Forces Network to deployed military locations overseas. Crane is a recipient of the Air Force Achievement Medal.