Officially established in 1903 under the Militia Act, Title 10 and Title 32 of the U.S. Code, the Army National Guard is part of the National Guard of the United States and is divided up into subordinate units stationed in each of the 50 states, three territories and the District of Columbia operating under their respective governors. The Army National Guard may be called up for active duty by the state governors or territorial commanding generals to help respond to domestic emergencies and disasters, such as those caused by hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes.
With the consent of state governors, members or units of the Army National Guard may be appointed, temporarily or indefinitely, to be federally recognized armed force members, in the active or inactive service of the United States. If federally recognized, the member or unit becomes part of the Army National Guard of the United States, which is a reserve component of the United States Army, and part of the National Guard.
Army National Guard units or members may be called up for federal active duty in times of Congressionally sanctioned war or national emergency. The President may also call up members and units of state Army National Guard, with the consent of state governors, to repel invasion, suppress rebellion, or execute federal laws if the United States or any of its states or territories are invaded or is in danger of invasion by a foreign nation, or if there's a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the federal government, or if the President is unable with the regular armed forces to execute the laws of the United States. Because both state Army National Guard and the Army National Guard of the United States relatively go hand-in-hand, they are both usually referred to as just Army National Guard.
Unlike Army Reserve members, National Guard members cannot be mobilized individually (except through voluntary transfers and Temporary Duty Assignments (TDY)), but only as part of their respective units. However, there has been a significant amount of individual activations to support military operations (2001 onwards).
Read more about Army National Guard: History, Twenty-first Century Reorganization, Army National Guard Forces
Famous quotes containing the words army, national and/or guard:
“Twenty or thirty years ago, in the army, we had a lot of obscure adventures, and years later we tell them at parties, and suddenly we realize that those two very difficult years of our lives have become lumped together into a few episodes that have lodged in our memory in a standardized form, and are always told in a standardized way, in the same words. But in fact that lump of memories has nothing whatsoever to do with our experience of those two years in the army and what it has made of us.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)
“If the national security is involved, anything goes. There are no rules. There are people so lacking in roots about what is proper and what is improper that they don’t know there’s anything wrong in breaking into the headquarters of the opposition party.”
—Helen Gahagan Douglas (1900–1980)
“What is the structure of government that will best guard against the precipitate counsels and factious combinations for unjust purposes, without a sacrifice of the fundamental principle of republicanism?”
—James Madison (1751–1836)