Army National Guard

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The symbolic figure of the Army National Guard in the coat of arms is the Minuteman

The Army National Guard (official abbreviation ARNG ), the the army of the United States assigned to National Guard units .

organization

As an organized militia, under the Militia Act , a federal law of 1903, it is subordinate to the governors of the member states who are obliged to equip these troop contingents. In parallel, they may be used by the President of the United States in certain federally regulated circumstances (such as in wartime). As a defense reservoir for the land forces, the National Guard ranks third behind the regular army and the army reserve .

The members of the National Guard are voluntary service payable militiamen . Each state , most territories (e.g. Puerto Rico ) and the District of Columbia maintain their own National Guard, which is subordinate to the respective chairman of the executive branch , usually the governor , and in addition to the Army National Guard in most states also the Air National Guard heard.

history

The Army National Guard is the oldest of all American troop contingents and is based on militia units from 1636, that is, at the time of the colonization of North America by European settlers. They have been called the National Guard since they were founded in their current form by Congress on January 21, 1903 and have subsequently been used in every major conflict. During the First World War , two-fifths of the troops fighting in France were national guards; 190,000 of them were deployed in World War II and 140,000 in the Korean War . After the attacks of September 11, 2001 , the National Guard was involved in the war on terror . a. also used in Iraq and Afghanistan .

State governors repeatedly deploy their state's national guard in the event of natural disasters and similar events. When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf of Mexico in 2005 , more than 50,000 National Guardsmen from all states were mobilized.

Web links

Commons : United States Army National Guard  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files