So, who controls the National Guard, the States or the fed government?

Factual Questions
1

I’m just wondering who controls the National Guard units. Do the States? or the federal government?

Lets say that a natural disaster strikes in a State. The governor calls out the Guard to deal with it. At the same time, the feds hav some sort of emergency and calls on the same Gaurd unit to assist the Feds. Who wins?

2

So far, the Feds win. There were a couple of governors who went to court to keep control of their National Guard units when Reagan was using the military to support his Somozan thugs in Nicaragua, so that their “state” troops would not be involved. The governors lost all the cases, that I recall, although we did not wind up sending millions of Guardsmen to Central America.

3

Your question is a little ambiguous. Congress establishes the training regime of the various state national guard units. The regular military (Army, Air Force) has liason offices in charge of coordination with the national guard. However, the appointment of officers, etc. is, I believe still under the control of the states and the state government controls the guard unless it is called into the federal service.

The performance of National Guard officers was so abysmal and the unit readiness was so low at the outset of WWII that a big push was made to give the regular military a lot more control. However, the guard had and has lots of political clout and I don’t think it came to anything.

As tomndebb says, though, it has become a lot easier for the president to federalize guard units as time goes by.

4

This site gives information as to the connection between the regular federal military by means of the National Guard Bureau.

This is anorganization chart of the Bureau.

And this is theFederal Code title for the guard.

And, finally, this defines who controls the guard when not in Federal service.

“When ARNG units are not mobilized under federal control, they report to the Adjutant General of their state or territory, or in the case of the District of Columbia, the Commanding General. Each Adjutant General is responsible to the Governor of his state (or in the case of the District of Columbia, the mayor.)”