U.S. National Guard
When can the U.S. president deploy the National Guard?
Has the U.S. National Guard been deployed without a request from a state governor?
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U.S. National Guard, reserve group organized by the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force. Every state and territory of the United States has a National Guard, which can be called on by state governors during emergencies including riots and natural disasters. Guard units may also be ordered into active duty for up to two years by the U.S. president in the event of a national emergency. As is the case with all elements of the U.S. military, enlistment in the National Guard is voluntary.
History
The National Guard is lineally descended from colonial and state militia units. Many Guard units in the original 13 states have been in existence since before the American Revolution, and the Guard as a whole claims December 13, 1636, as its “birth date.” On this day, officials of the Massachusetts Bay Colony established three permanent regiments to provide for colonial security. Colonial militias were the only organized defense against hostile Native American tribes during the long periods when regular British forces were not available. During the American Revolution, the militia provided the bulk of the American forces as well as a pool for recruiting regulars into the Continental Army.
On November 4, 1791, Northwest Indian Confederation warriors routed militia forces under Gen. Arthur St. Clair in what is now northwestern Ohio, and the inadequacies of the post-Revolutionary militia system were laid bare. The Militia Acts of 1792 were an attempt to address these shortcomings by enacting a uniform standard for militia troops. Every “free able-bodied white male citizen” between the ages of 18 and 45 would be enrolled in the militia of his state. The Militia Acts also provided that “it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to call forth the militia” in response to the threat of invasion or an act of insurrection “too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.” The Militia Acts were to remain in effect for two years.
Pres. George Washington soon had cause to make use of these powers. In 1794 he called up the militias of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia to put down the Whiskey Rebellion. Washington’s use of federal authority in such a manner horrified Thomas Jefferson’s supporters in the Democratic-Republican Party, but the precedent had been set. Congress passed another law in 1795 “to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions,” effectively making permanent the provisions of the Militia Acts that had expired in 1794. The legal mechanisms had been established for the “calling forth” of the militia, but the troops themselves remained untested, as the Whiskey Rebellion was put down without a shot fired. When the War of 1812 broke out, the militia forces proved to be of wildly varying quality. The Kentuckians fought with skill and in great numbers, while New England’s Federalist governors ignored the call entirely, refusing to field their militias for a proposed invasion of Canada. Prior to the American Civil War, some Southern militia forces were used as slave patrols. In the North, just days after the attack on Fort Sumter, Pres. Abraham Lincoln called up 75,000 militiamen to serve for a period of three months to put down the Confederate insurrection. Perhaps the most significant change to the militia system during the Civil War years was the Militia Act of 1862, which stated that “all able-bodied male citizens” should be enrolled in the militia. This small change to the text of the 1792 act opened the door to the enlistment of Black soldiers.
The modern National Guard was created in 1903 with the passage of the Efficiency in Militia Act. As with the original Militia Acts, this legislation was intended to modernize, professionalize, and standardize the various state militias under the banner of the National Guard. Crucially, the 1903 law provided federal funds to enact these changes. With the passage of the National Defense Act of 1916, the various National Guard units were for the first time organized and equipped in a common manner, as Washington had recommended 133 years earlier in his letter “Sentiments on a Peace Establishment.” With the entry of the United States into World War I, the National Guard was mobilized. Perhaps the most famous Guard unit to emerge from this period was the 15th New York (Colored) Infantry Regiment. The troops of the 15th New York were redesignated the 369th Infantry Regiment when they went to war, but they are better known to history as the Harlem Hellfighters.
The National Guard played a significant role in World War II and the Korean War, but they were largely kept out of the Vietnam War by Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson due to political considerations. Many young men came to see enlisting in the National Guard as a way to avoid the draft, and some Guard units were deployed domestically during periods of civil unrest or campus protest. On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guard troops fired on unarmed college students at Kent State University, killing four and wounding nine. One Guard unit that did serve in Vietnam was Company D (Ranger) of the Indiana 151st Infantry; they would conclude their one-year tour as one of the most decorated Army infantry companies of the war.
Pres. Richard M. Nixon had made ending the draft a campaign priority, and overall U.S. troop strength was already on the decline in 1969. With an eye toward a smaller, all-volunteer force, in August 1970 Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird proposed a “total force policy” that would see National Guard and Reserve units more closely integrated with their counterparts in the active-duty military. This model would guide Guard deployments into the 21st century. During the Iraq War, thousands of National Guard troops saw their combat tours extended for months as the Pentagon struggled to meet personnel demands. While this was a source of some controversy, it did signal that the citizen-soldiers of the Guard had become an integral part of the defense establishment.
Responsibilities and command structure
In peacetime National Guard units are typically commanded by the state governors. They are required by federal law, however, to conform to standards of organization and operations established by the Department of Defense, and are almost completely equipped by the federal government. In the event of invasion, rebellion, or the breakdown of law and order, the president may activate the Guard, although this is a rare occurrence. The Chief of the National Guard Bureau is the highest ranking officer in the Guard. The officer who fills this position is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and can be drawn from either the Army or Air Force. State Guard units are typically led by an officer of at least field-grade rank (major or above).
Unique among the U.S. armed services, members of the National Guard swear a dual oath, pledging to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States” as well as the constitution of their home state or territory. After completing basic and advanced training courses, Guard members are required to serve one weekend per month and two weeks per year for a total enlistment of eight years. Shorter commitments are available, with the individual Guard member completing his or her enlistment term as a member of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), an inactive force that can be called up in the event of a national emergency. With the implementation of the Pentagon’s “total force policy,” it is now routine for Army and Air National Guard units to be called up for active duty in wartime.
Domestic deployments
At the state level, National Guard units are routinely called up by governors to help restore order during civil disturbances and to provide assistance in the wake of natural disasters. Although the president can federalize the Guard in rare circumstances, this power has traditionally been used sparingly. Between 1867 and 1957, no president federalized the state militia or the National Guard to restore civic order.
The civil rights era saw the increased use of the National Guard as a domestic peacekeeping force, beginning with Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower in September 1957. Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus had commanded the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine Black students from entering Little Rock Central High School, in defiance of a federal court order that required him to desegregate Arkansas’s schools. Eisenhower responded by dispatching elements of the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock and federalizing the Arkansas National Guard. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson also federalized the National Guards of various states: examples include when James Meredith registered for classes at the University of Mississippi (1962); when Alabama Gov. George Wallace prevented the integration of the University of Alabama (1963); and during the Selma March (1965). During the Los Angeles riots in 1992, California Gov. Pete Wilson and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley requested that Pres. George H.W. Bush activate the Guard and provide federal troops to restore order. In 2025 Pres. Donald Trump federalized 2,000 National Guard troops over the objection of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and dispatched them to Los Angeles, where some protests against Trump’s immigration policies had turned violent.