National Guard (United States)
The National Guard is a military reserve organization of the United States Armed Forces that is based in each of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and three U.S. territories. It is among the regular reserve components that become part of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force when activated for federal missions. The National Guard is officially created under Congress's Article I, Section 8 enumerated power to "raise and support Armies". All members of the National Guard are also members of the organized militia of the United States as defined by. National Guard units are under the dual control of U.S. state or territorial governments and the U.S. federal government.
The majority of National Guard soldiers and airmen hold a civilian job full-time while serving part-time as a National Guard member. These part-time guardsmen are augmented by a full-time cadre of Active Guard and Reserve personnel in both the Army National Guard and Air National Guard, plus Army Reserve Technicians in the Army National Guard and Air Reserve Technicians in the Air National Guard.
The National Guard is a joint activity of the United States Department of Defense composed of reserve components of the United States Army and the United States Air Force: the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard, respectively.
Colonial militias were formed during the British colonization of the Americas from the 17th century onward. The first colony-wide militia was formed by Massachusetts in 1636 by merging small, older local units, and several National Guard units can be traced back to this militia. The various colonial militias became state militias when the United States became independent. The title "National Guard" was used in 1824 by some New York State militia units, named after the French National Guard in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette. "National Guard" became a standard nationwide militia title in 1903, and has specifically indicated reserve forces under mixed state and federal control since 1933. In the 21st century, state-level Defend the Guard legislation has been proposed that would require a formal congressional declaration of war before National Guard units can be deployed in overseas combat.
Origins
On December 13, 1636, the first militia regiments in North America were organized in Massachusetts. Based upon an order of the Massachusetts Bay Colony's General Court, the colony's militia was organized into three permanent regiments to better defend the colony. Today, the descendants of these first regiments - the 181st Infantry, the 182nd Infantry, the 101st Field Artillery, and the 101st Engineer Battalion of the Massachusetts Army National Guard – share the distinction of being the oldest units in the U.S. military. December 13, 1636, thus marks the beginning of the organized militia, and the birth of the National Guard's oldest organized units is symbolic of the founding of all the state, territory, and District of Columbia militias that collectively make up today's National Guard.Previous to this, unregulated militias were mustered sporadically in Spanish and English colonies. On September 16, 1565, in the newly established Spanish town of St. Augustine, militia were assigned to guard the expedition's supplies while their leader, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, took the regular troops north to attack the French settlement at Fort Caroline on the St. Johns River. This Spanish militia tradition and the tradition that was established in England's North American colonies provided the basic nucleus for Colonial defense in the New World.
The militia tradition continued with the New World's first permanent English settlements. Jamestown Colony and Plymouth Colony both had militia forces, which initially consisted of every able-bodied adult male. By the mid-1600s every town had at least one militia company, and the militia companies of a county formed a regiment. The first federal laws regulating the militia were the Militia acts of 1792.
From the nation's founding through the early 1900s, the United States maintained only a minimal army and relied on state militias, directly related to the earlier Colonial militias to supply the majority of its troops. As a result of the Spanish–American War, Congress was called upon to reform and regulate state militias' training and qualification.
U.S. Senator Charles W. F. Dick, a Major General in the Ohio National Guard and the chair of the Committee on the Militia, sponsored the 1903 Dick Act towards the end of the 57th U.S. Congress. Under this legislation, passed January 21, 1903, the organized militia of the states were given federal funding and required to conform to Regular Army organization within five years. The act also required National Guard units to attend twenty four drills and five days annual training a year, and, for the first time, provided for pay for annual training. In return for the increased federal funding which the act made available, militia units were subject to inspection by Regular Army officers, and had to meet certain standards.
It required the states to divide their militias into two sections. The law recommended the title "National Guard" for the first section, known as the organized militia, and "Reserve Militia" for all others.
During World War I, Congress passed the National Defense Act of 1916, which required the use of the term "National Guard" for the state militias and further regulated them. Congress also authorized the states to maintain Home Guards, which were reserve forces outside the National Guards deployed by the federal government.
In 1933, with the passage of the National Guard Mobilization Act, Congress finalized the split between the National Guard and the traditional state militias by mandating that all federally funded soldiers take a dual enlistment/commission and thus enter both the state National Guard and the National Guard of the United States, a newly created federal reserve force. The National Defense Act of 1947 created the Air Force as a separate branch of the Armed Forces and concurrently created the Air National Guard of the United States as one of its reserve components, mirroring the Army's structure.
Organization
Territorial organization
The National Guard of the several states, territories, and the District of Columbia serves as part of the first line of defense for the United States. The state National Guard is organized into units stationed in each of the 50 states, three territories, and the District of Columbia, and operates under their respective state or territorial governor, except in the instance of Washington, D.C., where the National Guard operates under the President of the United States or their designee. The governors exercise control through the state adjutants general. Governors may call up the National Guard for active duty to help respond to domestic emergencies and disasters, such as hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes.National Guard Bureau
The National Guard is administered by the National Guard Bureau, a joint activity of the Army and Air Force under the Department of Defense. The National Guard Bureau provides a communication channel for state National Guards to the DoD. The National Guard Bureau also provides policies and requirements for training and funds for state Army National Guard and state Air National Guard units, the allocation of federal funds to the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard, and other administrative responsibilities prescribed under. The National Guard Bureau is headed by the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, who is a four-star general in the Army or Air Force and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.The National Guard Bureau is headquartered in Arlington County, Virginia, and is a joint activity of the Department of Defense to conduct all the administrative matters pertaining to the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard. The chief is either an Army or an Air Force four-star general officer, and is the senior uniformed National Guard officer, and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In this capacity, he serves as a military adviser to the President, the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council and is the Department of Defense's official channel of communication to the Governors and to State Adjutants General on all matters pertaining to the National Guard. He is responsible for ensuring that the more than half a million Army and Air National Guard personnel are accessible, capable, and ready to protect the homeland and to provide combat resources to the Army and the Air Force. He is appointed by the President in his capacity as Commander in Chief.
Constitutional basis
The respective state National Guards are authorized by the Constitution of the United States. As originally drafted, the Constitution recognized the existing state militias, and gave them vital roles to fill: "to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasion.". The Constitution distinguished "militias," which were state entities, from "Troops," which were unlawful for states to maintain without Congressional approval.. Under current law, the respective state National Guards and the State Defense Forces are authorized by Congress to the states and are referred to as "troops.".Although originally state entities, the Constitutional "Militia of the Several States" were not entirely independent because they could be federalized. According to Article I, Section 8; Clause 15, the United States Congress is given the power to pass laws for "calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions." Congress is also empowered to come up with the guidelines "for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress". The President of the United States is the commander-in-chief of the state militias "when called into the actual Service of the United States.".
The traditional state militias were redefined and recreated as the "organized militia"—the National Guard, via the Militia Act of 1903. They were now subject to an increasing amount of federal control, including having arms and accoutrements supplied by the central government, federal funding, and numerous closer ties to the Regular Army.