Glenn G. Ames; Led State’s National Guard

Maj. Gen. Glenn G. Ames, a former commanding general of the California National Guard who, when an assistant commander, played an active part in the Guard’s service during the 1965 Watts riots, has died. He was 77.

Ames, who led the state’s forces from 1967 to 1975, died Tuesday of heart failure in Woodland Hills, it was announced late Friday.

Seasoned by the Watts riots, Ames took steps to train Guard troops to assist police officers if other civil disturbances erupted in California’s major cities. A year after he assumed command, he said 5,500 guardsmen could be “in the streets” of Los Angeles within two hours after such an “emergency” began, with another 3,000 trained troops available in San Francisco, and 1,100 in San Diego.

At the time of the Watts riots, Ames was assistant commander of the 40th Armored Division when then-Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown belatedly called it into action.

“The riot really did remind me of the war,” he later told the Los Angeles Times, referring to World War II, in which he served 44 months in the Pacific theater.

“It was a matter of breaking our men into small units, nine or 12-man squads, walking through the streets, watching every window. Just like real combat in a small village somewhere.”

A native of Wisconsin, Ames was first commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps on his graduation from the University of Illinois in 1935. After earning his law degree from USC in 1937, he served in what he termed “the old horse cavalry,” patroling the Mexican border.

Assigned to the 41st Infantry Division during World War II, Ames served in Australia, New Guinea, the then Dutch East Indies and the Philippines, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. At the end of the war, he was the intelligence officer in a task force that occupied the Hiroshima-Kure area and accepted the surrender of the remaining Imperial Japanese Navy.

After his occupation duty in Japan, he returned to the United States to practice law in Encino, specializing in probate and corporate law. Ames remained an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. He switched to the California National Guard in 1951.

He officially retired from it in 1966 as a brigadier general. But former Gov. Ronald Reagan called the Republican general out of retirement only four months later to head the state’s National Guard.

He supervised the reorganization and strengthening of the state’s National Guard, particularly preparing troops not to serve in Vietnam, but to quell civil disturbances at the height of protests against the Vietnam War.

When he retired from the command post in 1975, Ames was federally recognized as a major general and held the state rank of lieutenant general.

He is survived by his wife, Maxine; son, Glenn C. Ames Jr.; daughter, Jodi Ames Mulliniks; a sister, and two granddaughters.

Funeral services are scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday in the Praiswater Funeral Home, 5849 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys, followed by a military graveside service at the Los Angeles National Cemetery, 950 W. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles.

The family has asked that any memorial contributions be made to the National Guard Assn. of California’s Operation Cornerstone, P.O. Box 60580, Sacramento, Calif., 95860.