How do you retrieve a national Guard event picture without all the bull?

Answer 1

If it was a photo taken for DoD purposes, it's in the public domain... you just search for it on the Department of Defense image library, which provides download links with each image. However, this is only for official DoD photos. If the photo you're looking for wasn't taken by an actual military photographer/photojournalist, but was instead taken by an individual in that unit, and not submitted to the DoD, it's a much different matter. You would need to contact the unit which has/posted the photo. It shouldn't be a problem... if the unit posted or released the photo for any official use, it becomes part of the public domain, regardless of whether or not it was taken with a personal camera or with a camera belonging to the government. But you also have to understand that units are going to have higher priorities, and they're not going to drop everything for the purposes of fulfilling your request. You may be better off contacting the Civil Affairs office of the National Guard Bureau from the state whose unit you're trying to get the photo from.