Army National Guard

“ Around 642 infantry regiments served at some time or another, along with 9 legions, 163 separate battalions, and 62 unattached companies. Many of the Confederate units were the forbears of Army National Guard elements existing today. In the heat of the conflict, no changes were made in regimental organization, despite the fact that it was soon recognized as unsuitable. Improved firearms forced regiments and their companies to disperse to such an extent that officers could not effectively exercise control over them. Once .a regiment deployed, it was too big for one man and his staff to control. ”

“ It has been a huge military oversight on the part of our government to fail to provide for an occasional mobilization of troops, and for their operation in the field as one body. We have never had an army of sufficient size to warrant any such manœuvres with the regular force alone, but the National Guard regiments should be included in this sort of work just as the militia regiments of England are every year made a part of the Aldershot manœuvres. ”

“ Each state governor organized the units with which he answered the President's call, usually by requesting that National Guard units volunteer. Guardsmen, however, were under no legal obligation to volunteer, and a significant number refused either because of fears over how their unit would be treated by the Regular Army or from concern over hardships that volunteering would impose on their families. Large numbers of Guardsmen who did volunteer failed their physical examination. To fill units to full strength, states recruited enlisted men direct from civil life. ”

“ A bill is now pending before the Congress creating a number of extra officers in the Army, which if passed, as it ought to be, will enable more officers to be trained as instructors of the National Guard and assigned to that duty. In case of war it will be of the utmost importance to have a large number of trained officers to use for turning raw levies into good troops. ”

“ We can't continue to have one that is stretched and pulled, and particularly – and I'm very sensitive to this having been a governor and watched some of our National Guard troops spend three out of five years in active duty – if we're going to engage them, we have to make sure we've got enough troop strength of regular Army and our Air Force and Navy that we don't have to have extended deployments out of our guard and reserve units. ”

“ A few army officers are assigned to the Civil Guard for special duties, such as communications, supply, weapons specialties, and general staff functions. All enlisted men are volunteers. Except for sons (including orphans) of Civil Guard personnel, all enlisted men must have completed their term of compulsory service. The former, who receive preference when vacancies occur, enter a special preparatory school (Colegio de Guardias Jovenes) as children; their training is rigid. ”

“ The Army, Navy and Air Force have as their essential responsibility the planning, execution and control of military operations as required to ensure the defense of the Nation. The National Guard shall cooperate in the carrying out of these operations, and shall have as its basic responsibility that of conducting operations as required to maintain internal order within the country. The National Armed Forces shall carry out activities of administrative policing and criminal investigation activities as provided for by law. ”

“ The regular army consists of 1340 officers and 7297 rank and file. According to a statement presented to Congress in 1897, the total effectives should be 29,513 officers and men. The National Guard is stated to include 471,912 men, all told, the majority of whom receive some little training. Citizens of 20 years of age are mobilized every year and receive two months' drill in camp, as the result of an obligatory military service act passed in 1901. ”

“ The public force is instituted for the purpose of defending the State against enemies from without, and to ensure, internally, the maintenance of order, and the execution of the laws. It is composed of the National Guard and of the army by sea and by land. ”

“ It is very important that the officers of the Army should be accustomed to handle their men in masses, as it is also important that the National Guard of the several States should be accustomed to actual field manœuvring, especially in connection with the regulars. ”

“ Thus, in most instances, units allotted after the war perpetuated histories of prewar units. Heading the post-World War II list of National Guard armor and cavalry units were the 49th and 50th Armored Divisions of Texas and New Jersey, respectively. Nondivisional units included 5 armored groups, 3 cavalry groups, 31 tank battalions, and 15 cavalry reconnaissance squadrons. Each of the 25 National Guard infantry divisions had a mechanized cavalry reconnaissance troop and a tank battalion, and each infantry regiment had a tank company. The National Guard had no horse cavalry units. ”

“ Now that the organized militia, the National Guard, has been incorporated with the Army as a part of the national forces, it behooves the Government to do every reasonable thing in its power to perfect its efficiency. ”

“ On the other hand, the National Guard would soon learn to appreciate the excellence of Regular Army methods—which in the main are valuable—so that should another occasion occur for the nation again to organize a vast Army, Regulars and Volunteers would soon harmoniously unite. ”

“ Federal funding was insufficient to meet the standards, however, so state funding became crucial to the quality of Guard units. Recruiting and retaining enlisted men was very difficult because federal standards increased the demands on a Guardsman's time, training was often monotonous, and drilling was unpaid. Many commanders responded by emphasizing the athletic and social aspects of Guard service at the expense of military training. Readiness suffered from these causes, from often inadequate armories, and from the Regular Army's inability to fill all inspector-instructor billets. ”

“ He was frequently employed on detached services during the campaigns of 1778–9, and being appointed to the light company of his regiment, formed for service in America—the regiments of guards did not possess permanent light companies until some years later—commanded it under Lord Cornwallis in Carolina and Virginia, where it formed the advance guard of the army, and was daily engaged with the enemy. ”

“ Since the Civil War many, perhaps most, Regular Army officers had believed that the militia was incompetent and unreliable, and this belief remained strong after passage of the Militia Act. Harsh and sometimes unreasonable criticism by Regulars angered Guard officers working hard to improve their units. Many Guard officers continued to see the increasing federal regulation of the militia as an unwarranted intrusion into what had traditionally been state and local matters. ”

“ The National Armed Forces consist of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the National Guard, which function in an integrated manner within the scope of their competence to fulfill their mission, with their own overall Social Security system, as established under the pertinent organic law. ”

“ When the national or regimental colors are taken from the stacks of the color line, the color bearer and guard, or the sergeant of the guard, unarmed, and two armed privates as a guard, will escort the colors to the colonel's quarters, as prescribed for the color guard in the drill regulations of the arm of the service to which the guard belongs. ”

“ Each infantry brigade comprised three infantry regiments, and the other divisional units included a cavalry regiment, an engineer battalion, and medical and signal units. In place of the field artillery brigade, each division had only one field artillery regiment. Because the artillery and cavalry regiments General Bellwere made up of both Regular Army and National Guard elements, Bell designated them as "National" regiments. The supply and ammunition trains, manned by civilians, were to be formed after mobilization. ”

“ Among other things, the Army lacked modern field artillery, rifles, tanks, and antitank and antiaircraft weapons. Although acutely aware of the shortages, Marshall believed that the Army could conduct basic training while the production of weapons caught up. 17
Mobilization of National Guard Units As the possibility that the nation might be forced into the European war increased, some members of the War Department favored federalization of the National Guard to correct deficiencies in its training and equipment. ”

“ At the time of the armistice on 11 November 1918, an American division contained 28,105 men, nearly twice the number in European units. Firepower in both division and brigade was greatly augmented. In the transition from triangular to square divisions, and in the consequent alteration of regiments and battalions, the elements of the National Guard were seriously dislocated. Since out of the 367,223 enlisted men of the Guard originally inducted, 242,000 (66 percent) were infantrymen, it was believed necessary to break up many infantry units. ”

“ National Guard troops receive military training. National Guard units are equipped with military equipment, in some cases the most sophisticated and lethal military equipment in the Defense Department's arsenal, including tanks, fighter and bomber aircraft, and armored personnel carriers. These units, by design, possess many of the same capabilities as active military units. In fact, almost one-half of the U.S. Armed Forces is composed of National Guard and Reserve forces. When activated by the President, the National Guard becomes part of the active duty military. ”

“ They saw fit to keep disciplined organizations in their armories, while the undisciplined citizens were parading the streets with their bits of wood. Time and again have the National Guards of our different states been placed in just such a predicament, and when politics are thrust into the background, and civil offices are occupied by fair-minded men whose sole aim is the welfare of the state, and not till then, will the National Guard occupy the place designed for it in the government of our country. ”

“ The National Guard and the Posse Comitatus Act under current law The National Guard, for reasons that are at least partially historical, is not subject to the same legal restrictions placed on active duty and reserve military personnel with regard to involvement in civilian law enforcement. [24] Having evolved from the State militia concept, the National Guard holds the unique position as both a State and a national military force. ”

“ No other call to duty is so truly a test of military readiness as that in connection with a fire, coming as it does always without the slightest previous warning. And no other duty, performed as the 1st Regiment performed it in 1872, does so much to win friends for the organization, and for the National Guard of which it forms a part. At no other time does the National Guardsman appear so nearly in his true rôle, as “a soldier of peace.” ”

“ Congress, under its constitutional authority to 'raise and support armies' has created the National Guard of the United States, a federal organization comprised of state national guard units and their members. ”

“ He did not minimize his own public-spirit and liberality in his speech, though he gave due credit to his fellow-workers in the enterprise. And he congratulated the State and the State Armory Board on their foresight and vision in providing so handsome, spacious and complete a building to crown the site purchased and paid for by the citizens of Fairweather of whom he was proud to be one.
“These patriotic and progressive young men of [73] the National Guard,” he said, “deserve the best quarters that can be provided for them. ”