Voices: Major General Martin Umbarger on National Guard Sponsorship

At the 2008 Indy 500 Media Tour I had the opportunity to ask Major General Martin Umbarger, the Indiana Adjutant General, a question about the Army National Guard’s sponsorship of the Panther Racing car driven by Vitor Meira. Specifically, whether he felt there was any issue with the Guard sponsoring a car driven by a foreign driver.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not an issue to me personally. But I know there are a few people out there that disagree, so I thought it would be interesting to get his take on it.

Click the play button below to listen to me stammer through the question (ugh) and hear General Umbarger’s response.

Want to download the sounds? Buy me a beer!

I felt that General Umbarger offered a pretty good response. I also think that this situation works because of the people involved, namely John Barnes, Vitor Meira, and the entire Panther Racing team.

Panther Racing has a history of reaching out and helping others and Vitor seems to be a very warm and sincere person that fits perfectly. John Barnes is known for promoting a family atmosphere in his organization, and it doesn’t really matter where people are from when they get there, they just become part of the family from that day forward. And that’s really the same thing General Umbarger was saying, so Panther and the Guard would seem to be a great fit. Hopefully their partnership can work for years to come.

After having my question answered I also expressed my pride as a former Guard member in seeing the Army National Guard sponsor an IndyCar Series team (I mentioned that in a post when the announcement was first made). General Umbarger thanked me for my service and presented me with a “commander’s coin”. Pictured below, commander’s coins (also called “challenge coins” in different situations) are specially minted military coins often used to improve morale, foster unit esprit and honor service members for their hard work. They are a treasured and respected representation of the organization minted on the coin, and it means a great deal to me to have been given one.