“Operation Guidon Bearer” - A 2,900 mile road trip Vernon (Butch) Limerick travels to East Coast to return his Virginia Army National Guard Guidon back home

Vernon (Butch) Limerick was a junior in high school when he joined the Virginia Army National Guard back in 1962. He was a member of an Air Defense Artillery unit that subsequently changed to an Armored Cavalry unit in 1963. Both units were based in Fredericksburg, Virginia. In 1968 Butch joined Class 11 of the Virginia National Guard Officer Candidate School (OCS). He was kind of excited when he heard some of OCS would be held at the State Military Reservation at Virginia Beach, Virginia, but he quickly discovered it was going to be anything but a vacation.