The new leader of the Iowa National Guard is Adjutant General Ron Dardis, a native of Ruthven, who loves to fly. He enlisted in the guard back in 1966 after college because he wanted to fly. Dardis has flown more than 36 hundred hours in F-100s, A-7s and F-16s. He was a flight instructor at the one-85th in Sioux City, where he’s lived for 38 years. His flying days ended two summers ago. The engine in the F-16 Dardis was flying quit, and he ejected from the plane. Dardis fractured his back,but he’s healthy now. General Dardis will oversee an operation which has a budget of 160-million-dollars, with over a billion-and-a-half dollars worth of equipment. About 10-thousand Iowans are employed by the Guard. Dardis will oversee 75-hundred Army National Guard soldiers and 21-hundred Air National Guard members.
