On the first hour of Diane Rehm’s news round-up, Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard said he’d much rather have the Guard fighting in wars to protect national security than here at home, ready and waiting to respond to tornadoes, wildfires, etc. Before I launch a Pit thread about how the Army is for fighting abroad, and the Guard is for protecting the country, Bush is an idiot for deploying the Guard and I wanted to be sure that Hayes is wrong. So, what is the mission of the Nat’l Guard?
To fight wars. To help with civil disturbances. To help with natural disasters. The National Guard has two roles, a federal mission and a state mission. It is no coincidence that a large number of National Guard troops are combat arms (the army reserves are mostly combat support). They are not MOS 99K Sandbag fillers. They are tankers and infantry and artillery. Do you think they need many M1 Abrams crewmen to help with hurricane relief? The National Guard is meant to be deployed in time of war. They are meant to augment the active force. That is how they are trained and that is how they should be used. Each state governor also can use them in their role as the state militia but the federal mission takes precedence. This is nothing new. This is nothing that George Bush changed.
I just hit 18 years in Feb. 4 active, 14 guard.
From Army National Guard homepage:
Under Federal Mission:
Under State Mission:
In fact, my understanding is that the National Guard has been involved in pretty much every major foreign conflict since it was created. They were certainly involved in World Wars I & II. The OP can read a little history right here in Wikipedia.
While in the guard I have been in an attack helicopter battalion, an M1 Abrams armor battalion and now the headquarters of a brigade combat team. It is not organized like that in order to haul water and supplies to tornado victims.