National Guard of The United States

The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of National Guard militia members or units of each state and the territories of Guam and the Virgin Islands plus the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia (54 organizations) under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. National Guard members are a subset of the Militia as defined by 10 U.S.C. § 311. 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 & Reserve (AGR) personnel in both the Army National Guard and Air National Guard, plus Army Reserve Technicians in the Army National Guard and Air Reserve Technicians (ART) in the Air National Guard.

The National Guard of the United States 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 of the United States for the Army and the Air National Guard of the United States for the Air Force.

The National Guard traces its history to the establishment of three militia regiments by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony on 13 December 1636. The first muster of the three regiments is generally thought to have occurred in the spring of 1637 on Salem Common. The 101st Engineer Battalion, the 101st Field Artillery Regiment, the 181st Infantry Regiment, and the 182nd Infantry Regiment trace their lineage to these three regiments: the North, South and East Regiments. The term "national guard" was not used at that time; it was first coined in the 1790s by the Marquis de Lafayette as a description of anti-royalist French Revolutionary citizen forces. (Lafayette had earlier served as a general officer fighting under George Washington in the American Revolutionary War.)

The National Guard was established as a federally funded reserve component of the nation's armed forces on 21 January 1903 with the Militia Act of 1903 under Title 10 and Title 32 of the U.S. Code. The National Defense Act of 1947 created the Air Force as a separate branch of the Armed Forces of the United States and concurrently created the Air National Guard as one of its reserve components, mirroring the Army's component structure. The National Guard of the several states, territories and the District of Columbia serves as part of the first-line defense for the United States. The state National Guard is organized into units stationed in each of the 50 states and US territories, and operates under their respective state governor or territorial adjutant general. The National Guard may be called up for active duty by state governors or territorial adjutant general to help respond to domestic emergencies and disasters, such as hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes.

The National Guard of the United States is administered by the National Guard Bureau, which is a joint activity under the Department of Defense. The National Guard Bureau provides a communication channel for state National Guard to the Department of Defense. The National Guard Bureau also provides policies and requirements for training and funds for training for state Army National Guard and state Air National Guard units, the allocation of federal funds to the Army National Guard of the United States and the Air National Guard of the United States, as well as other administrative responsibilities prescribed under 10 U.S.C. § 10503. The National Guard Bureau is headed by the Chief of the National Guard Bureau (CNGB), who is a four-star general in the Army or Air Force and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.