as the 157th Infantry Regiment on 24 September as the 157th Infantry Regiment as part of the 40th Infantry Division. The 157th received campaign credit for Champagne-Marne, Aisne-Marne, St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, and Champagne 1918 during their deployment to France. For much of the decade following the First World War, the Colorado National Guard was plagued with low enlistment numbers and limited funding. Despite this, it was mustered against striking Denver Tramway Company workers in August 1920, where the Guard’s limited numbers meant it was unable to effectively break up the strikers. In June 1921, the Arkansas River flooded, killing at least 120—with some estimates of up to 1,500 dying—and destroying hundreds of homes in and around Pueblo. The National Guard and local American Legion chapters helped rescue and recover victims. The Colorado Army National Guard added the 120th Aero Observation Squadron 27 June 1923, the first unit of what would become the Colorado Air National Guard. The 120th was one of the 29 original National Guard observation squadrons and was part of the 45th Division. It began flying Curtiss JN-4 Jenny biplanes out of the new Lowry Airfield in Denver in 1924. As Adjutant General, Hamrock ordered the National Guard and the state-wide police force, the Colorado Rangers, to subdue striking miners in 1922. The National Guard was not present at the November 1927 Columbine Mine massacre, though the Colorado Rangers—which had been disbanded in April that year and were recalled up from the Guard to deal with the strike—were. On 18 April 1936, during the economic trials of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, Governor Edwin C. Johnson declared martial law and ordered the closure of Colorado’s southern state borders to migrants. The National Guard effected this order with troops posted on the border by 20 April. Following a threatened boycott of Colorado businesses by New Mexico and New Mexican Senators Dennis Chávez and Carl Hatch condemning the measures as unconstitutional, the governor lifted his orders after only ten days. Second World War With the outbreak of World War II, the 3rd Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment was attached to the 45th Infantry Division "Thunderbirds" and largely composed of Coloradans, Native Americans, and Mexican-Americans, but also included many troops from Mississippi and Oklahoma. It deployed to the European Theatre of WWII, first seeing combat on 10 July 1943 while landing as part of Invasion of Sicily, losing 27 men to