In a ceremony so packed with government officials and military brass that some colonels sat three rows back, an armory in Moreno Valley was officially renamed Saturday, April 5, for the former top commander of all National Guard forces.
Six generals spoke, along with Riverside County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff Stone, while several other generals sat in a crowd of civilians and military members in and out of uniform.
The guest of honor Saturday, 86-year-old retired Lt. Gen. Herbert R. Temple Jr., of Palm Desert, quipped that he was probably the oldest of the more than 150 people gathered inside a gymnasium-style building at what had been the Moreno Valley Readiness Center. It is now the Lt. Gen. Herbert R. Temple Jr. Army National Guard Readiness Center.
“As I walked through the main entrance into this building,” Temple quipped, “I looked up and there was my name. The first thing that crossed my mind was, given my age, I thought the only other time I’d see my name on something would be on a headstone. But this is a step up from that.”
The Moreno Valley readiness center, as armories have come to be called, is home to companies of National Guardsmen who serve in transportation, as engineers, in intelligence and other logistical support. They store equipment and train there.
The 40{+t}{+h} Infantry Division band played martial tunes and soldiers snapped to attention during Saturday’s ceremony as the California National Guard Joint Color Guard marched to the front of the room, turned and saluted the speakers.
“We are honoring a great man and a great leader today,” said Maj. Gen. David S. Baldwin, the adjutant general of the California Military Department. “Gen. Temple is truly a transformational leader.
“He’s not someone who just got the rank, got the position and went through the motions,” Baldwin said. “He’s someone who made definite, hard decisions, hard change that has laid the groundwork for the tremendous, splendid National Guard that we have today.”
Fellow retired generals recounted Temple’s career, from enlisted soldier at the end of World War II to Korean War veteran, military advisor to then-Gov. Ronald Reagan and eventually chief of the National Guard Bureau from 1986 until his retirement in 1990.
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War when the military was being cut off and its leaders were re-examining the roles of their troops, the general said, Temple pressed for better equipment, training and education.
“Gen. Temple was the guy who was in the right place at the right time with the right experience, the right intellect,” said retired Maj. Gen. Robert C. Thrasher, former adjutant general of the California National Guard.
Retired Maj. Gen. Dennis M. Kenneally, former deputy secretary of the Air Force, credited Temple with setting the stage for National Guard and Army troops to deploy quickly and effectively “so quickly after 9-11.
“I remember vividly over lunch one day,” he said, Temple “outlined on a napkin his four priorities: soldier readiness, unit proficiency, professional development and mobilization preparedness. Those tenets came to be known as the Temple Napkin Policies.”
Temple offered an observation.
“Military life is not easy,” he said. “For those of you who are serving today, it won’t be any easier for you. But let me tell you, it is enormously important.’
Contact Darrell R. Santschi at 951-368-9079 or dsantschi@pe.com
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