Gen. Nash retires after long career in National Guard

He was believed to be the last draftee serving in the US Military, and now Maj. Gen. Richard Nash is a civilian. The New Prague resident and Jordan native retired earlier this month as Adjutant General of the Minnesota National Guard, a post he’s held for seven years.

Nash joined the US Army Reserves in 1972 after graduating from what was then Mankato State College.

"I had no intention of joining the military," he said. "I went to school during the Vietnam War, and while I was in school I had a deferral, but after I graduated my number came up. This was in the last months of the war, and just before they discontinued the draft, so I joined the Army Reserve, Company A, which was based in New Prague."

He said the unit, like most Reserve units, was full. "People joined in order avoid being drafted into the regular army," he said. "Shortly after I joined, the US started pulling troops out of Vietnam."

His original commitment was for six years. "At the time, six years seemed like a long time," he said. After graduating he took a job at FabCon in Savage in management.

"I spent 28 years there, rising to vice president of operations," he said. He left there in 2000, then worked for four years at Hanson SpanCrete in Maple Grove.

All the while, he continued to serve in the military. After his six-year commitment to the Army Reserve, he transferred to the Minnesota National Guard, and continued to move up the ranks.

He was promoted to....

To see more on this story pick up the November 23, 2017 print edition of The New Prague Times.