Yesterday, I posted this:
Lex Anteinternet: Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 88th Edition. A pred...: There's been some interesting signs of things to come recently, including where Hegseth is headed on women in the military, and where Tr...
In that, I noted the following:
On other things military, we have this:
A President federalizing a Guard unit ab initio like this is very unusual.
Some are declaring that this is a first step towards nationwide martial law. I doubt it. It's a bad move however. Troops, including National Guardsmen, make poor police. They really aren't trained for it, but are trained to use force.
Usually troops, including National Guardsmen, who are deployed in this role aren't given ammunition. The opposite can happen, of course, as Kent State famously and tragically indicated. This is a bad look, anyway you view it.
What we didn't note is the damage this is likely to do to the National Guard, particularly if this event repeats.
The other day we noted that the National Guard, the way it reckons its history, is older than the Army, dating back to December 13, 1636. The early United States relied upon state militias for defense much more than they did the Regular Army, which was tiny and tended to be deployed in coastal forts, a few established bases, and later on the western frontier. In case of invasion, such as occurred in the War of 1812, it was the militia that the US was relying. Every man of military age had to serve in their state's militias.
After the Civil War that began to change as society became more fluid. Men began to ignore their militia duty and nothing was really done about it. In response, most states came to form more permanent volunteer units, although some states had those dating back to colonial times, and most Eastern states had them before the Civil War. After the war, however, some State Governors began to use those troops as strikebreakers. It happened, for instance, in Pennsylvania and it happened again during the Colorado Coalfield War.
Guardsmen hated it.
Guardsmen looked at the service state militias and state volunteer units had provided during the Civil War and again during the Spanish American War and argued that their status as a military reserve needed to be clarified. The Army didn't like the idea at all. The Guard won out, however, and the Militia Act of 1903 made that status clear.*
The Army had a hard time accepting it from the onset, but it was forced to rely on the Guard during the Mexican Border War and then during World War One, during which a huge percentage of troops were National Guardsmen. The Great War really began to change things and in the 20s and 30s new efforts were made to really incorporate the Guard into the Army and bring its training up to Army standards. That paid off in World War Two and again during the Korean War, as well as the early Cold War.
The Guard was hurt, however, by the Vietnam War. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara didn't like reserve forces to start with, he backed an effort to eliminate the Army Reserve, for instance, and the Johnson Administration was fearful of deploying the Guard in Indochina. The Guard became a haven for men seeking to avoid serving in the U.S. Army during the war, although that does not mean that all of their objections were illegitimate. At least they were serving. Late in the war some National Guard units were deployed to Vietnam, including a Ranger unit from California, so its not true that the Guard wasn't used at all. Indeed, the Air National Guard was used a lot, flying various missions to and from Vietnam in a manner that was basically off the books in terms of calculating forces in Vietnam.
Nonetheless, the Vietnam War caused the moniker "Weekend Warrior" to attach to Guardsmen as a slur. Use of the Ohio National Guard at Kent State didn't help at all.
Since the Vietnam War, however, the Army National Guard has been assimilated into the Army in a manner that's nearly seamless. The Guard became very much part of the Army's plans in the post Vietnam Cold War after conscription ended. This remains the case today. The Army can't fight a war without the Guard, and it hasn't fought one without it. The Air National Guard is so much a part of the Air Force that much of it is deployed all the time, and some pilots with some transport units are basically full time service members.
Enter Donald Trump, who has never been in the Service, and his use of the California Army National Guard as riot police.
This has never worked well. Soldiers aren't policemen, they don't want to be, and they don't work well in that role when they're deployed to do it. Not only that, it will, and already has, cause a detrimental impact on the reputation of the National Guard.
Indeed, an interesting example of just that is this report by NPR:
Most Recent Episodes
The report isn't hostile to the Guard and its very interesting for a variety or reasons, most specifically in regard to a DHS report that plans the use of the Guard in a policing/border patrol way on a massive scale. But I first note it here as the reporter, who is NPR's Pentagon reporter, completely gets the Guard, and its history, wrong. He states flat out that they're mostly used for what amount to natural disasters. That's completely wrong, although the Guard itself likes to emphasize that sort of role. In reality, the Guard is a reserve of the U.S. Army and a state militia, and the Army's combat arms reserves are principally in the National Guard, not the Army Reserve, which mostly has a support role. He also states that this sort of deployment is basically completely unprecedented. It's not. It's rare, but not without precedent. Indeed, the example of calling up Guard units from distant states and using them as sort of a border patrol, sort of, occurred when President Nixon called the Guard up to serve on the border following Villa's raid on Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916, although very rare distinctions can be made as they were also very much defending the border against the possibility of an armed Mexican military or Villista attack.
The misuse of the National Guard, both by using it for riot control and by failing to deploy it in significant numbers during the Vietnam War, damaged the Guard for years. During the war the Guard, and to a lesser extent the Reserves, gained a reputation as being a haven for those seeking to avoid combat duty, which was true to more than a little extent. That reflected itself in public thought, and in post Vietnam War portrayals of the Guard, such as the negative portrayals found in Southern Comfort (1981), Earthquake (1974), and The Eagle Has Landed (1976), all of which otherwise take on very divergent themes. The last of the Vietnam War era Guardsmen who had joined to evade service in Vietnam were out of the Guard by 1979, but the reputation stuck around longer. Indeed, ironically, the Guard of the 1970s filled up with a lot of Vietnam veterans who couldn't adjust back to civilian life, meaning that it had a lot of combat experience in its rank. Vietnam vets stuck around in the Guard for a very long time after the war, for that matter, with some of them lasting long enough to serve again in combat in Afghanistan.
And now comes this.
ICE, which is one of the stupidest named Federal entities ever, doesn't have the manpower to take on the tasks the Trump administration has assigned to it and its completely obvious that it couldn't go into a city like Los Angeles without drawing attention to itself. But calling out the National Guard, and then the Marine Corps, to deal with that was a grossly excessive response.
And one which is very concerning to say the least.
Whatever else occurs, we can expect Guard recruitment to start falling pretty quickly.
Footnotes:
*
57TH UNITED STATES CONGRESS
2ND SESSION
An Act
To promote the efficiency of the militia, and for other purposes
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the militia shall consist of every able-bodied male citizen of the respective States, Territories, and the District of Columbia, and every able; bodied male of foreign birth who has declared his intention to become a citizen, who is more than eighteen and less than forty-five years of age, and shall be divided into two classes-the organized militia, to be known as the National Guard of the State, Territory, or District of Columbia, or by such other designations as may be given them by the laws of the respective States or Territories, and the remainder to be known as the Reserve Militia.
Sec. 2. That the Vice-President of the United States, the officers, judicial and executive, of the Government of the United States, the members and officers of each House of Congress, persons in the military or naval service of the United States, all custom-house officers, with their clerks, postmasters and persons employed by the United States in the transmission of the mail, ferrymen employed at any ferry on a post-road, artificers and workmen employed in the armories and arsenals of the United States, pilots, mariners actually employed in the sea service of any citizen or merchant within the United States, and all persons who are exempted by the laws of the respective States or Territories shall be exempted from militia duty, without regard to age: Provided, That nothing in this Act shall be construed to require or compel any member of any well-recognized religious sect or organization at present organized and existing whose creed forbids its members to participate in war in any form, and whose religious convictions are against war or participation therein, in accordance with the creed of said religious organization, to serve in the militia or any other armed or volunteer force under the jurisdiction and authority of the United States.
Sec. 3. That the regularly enlisted, organized, and uniformed active militia in the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia who have heretofore participated or shall hereafter participate in the apportionment of the annual appropriation provided by section sixteen hundred and sixty-one of the Revised Statutes of the United States, as amended, whether known and designated as National Guard, militia, or otherwise, shall constitute the organized militia. The organization, armament, and discipline of the organized militia in the several States and Territories and in the District of Columbia shall be the same as that which is now or may hereafter be prescribed for the Regular and Volunteer-Armies of the United States, within five years from the date of the approval of this Act: Provided, That the President of the United States, in time of peace, may by order fix the minimum number of enlisted men in each company, troop, battery, signal corps, engineer corps, and hospital corps: And provided further, That any corps of artillery, cavalry and infantry existing in any of the States at the passage of the Act of May eighth, seventeen hundred and ninety-two, which, by the laws, customs or usages of the said States have been in continuous existence since the passage of said Act under its provisions and under the provisions of Section two hundred and thirty-two and Sections sixteen hundred and twenty-five to sixteen hundred and sixty both inclusive, of Title sixteen of the Revised Statutes of the United States relating to the Militia, shall be allowed to retain their accustomed privileges, subject, nevertheless, to all other duties required by law in like manner as the other Militia.
Sec. 4. That whenever the United States is invaded, or in danger of invasion from any foreign nation or of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States, or the President is unable, with the other forces at his command, to execute the laws of the Union in any part thereof, it shall be lawful for the President to call forth, for a period not exceeding nine months, such number of the militia of the State or of the States or Territories or of the District of Columbia as he may deem necessary to repel such invasion, suppress such rebellion, or to enable him to execute such laws, and to issue his orders for that purpose to such officers of the militia as he may think proper.
Sec. 5. That whenever the President calls forth the militia, of any State or Territory or of the District of Columbia to be employed in the service of the United States, be may specify in his-call the period for which such service is required, not exceeding nine months, and the militia so called shall continue to serve during the term so specified, unless sooner discharged by order of the President.
Sec. 6. That when the militia of more than one State is called into the actual service of the United States by the President he may, in his discretion, apportion them among such States or Territories or to the District of Columbia according to representative population.
Sec. 7. That every officer and enlisted man of the militia who shall be called forth in the manner hereinbefore prescribed and shall be found fit for military service shall be mustered or accepted into the United States service by a duly authorized mustering officer of the United States: Provided, however, That any officer or enlisted man of the militia who shall refuse or neglect to present himself to such mustering officer upon being called forth as herein prescribed shall be subject to trial by court-martial, and shall be punished as such court-martial may direct.
Sec. 8. That courts-martial for the trial of officers or men of the militia, when in the service of the United States, shall be composed of militia officers only.
Sec. 9. That the militia, when called into the actual service of the United States, shall be subject to the same Rules and Articles of War as the regular troops of the United States.
Sec. 10. That the militia, when called into the actual service of the United States, shall, during their time of service, be entitled to the same pay and allowances as are or may be provided by law for the Regular Army.
Sec. 11. That when the militia is called into the actual service of the United States, or any portion of the militia is accepted under the provisions of this Act, their pay shall commence from the day of their appearing at the place of company rendezvous. But this provision shall not be construed to authorize any species of expenditure previous to arriving at such places of rendezvous which is not provided by existing laws to be paid after their arrival at such places of rendezvous.
Sec. 12. That there shall be appointed in each State, Territory and District of Columbia, an Adjutant-General, who shall perform such duties as may be prescribed by the laws of such State, Territory, and District, respectively, and make returns to the Secretary of War, at such times and in such form as he shall from time to time prescribe, of the strength of the organized militia, and also make such reports as may from time to time be required by the Secretary of War. That the Secretary of War shall, with his annual report of each year, transmit to Congress an abstract of the returns and reports of the adjutants-general of the States, Territories, and the District of Columbia, with such observations thereon as he may deem necessary for the information of Congress.
Sec. 13. That the Secretary of War is hereby authorized to issue, on the requisitions of the governors of the several States and Territories, or of the commanding general of the militia of the District of Columbia, such number of the United States standard service magazine arms, with bayonets, bayonet scabbards, gun slings, belts, and such other necessary accouterments and equipments as are required for the Army of the United States, for arming all of the organized militia in said States and Territories and District of Columbia, without charging the cost or value thereof, orally which have been issued since December first, nineteen hundred and one, or any expense connected therewith, against the allotment to said State, Territory, or District of Columbia, out of the annual appropriation provided by section sixteen hundred and sixty-one of the Revised Statutes, as amended, or requiring payment therefor, and to exchange, without receiving any money credit therefor, ammunition, or parts thereof, suitable to the new arms, round for round, for corresponding ammunition suitable to the old arms theretofore issued to said State, Territory, or District by the United States: Provided, That said rifles and carbines and other property shall be receipted for and shall remain the property of the United States and be annually accounted for by the governors of the States and Territories as now required bylaw, and that each State, Territory, and District shall, on receipt of the new arms, turn in to the Ordnance Department of the United States Army, without receiving any money credit therefor, and without expense for transportation, all United States rifles and carbines now in its possession.
To provide, means to carry into effect the provisions of this section, the necessary money to cover the cost of exchanging or issuing the new arms, accouterments, equipments, and ammunition to be exchanged or issued hereunder is hereby appropriated out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.
Sec. 14. That whenever it shall appear by the report of inspections, which it shall be the duty of the Secretary of War to cause to be made at least once in each year by officers detailed by him for that purpose, that the organized militia of a State or Territory or of the District of Columbia is sufficiently armed, uniformed, and equipped for active duty in the field, the Secretary of War is authorized, on the requisition of the governor of such State or Territory, to pay to the quartermaster-general thereof, or to such other officer of the militia of said State as the said governor may designate and appoint for the purpose, so much of its allotment out of the said annual appropriation under section sixteen hundred and sixty-one of the Revised Statutes as amended as shall be necessary for the payment, subsistence, and transportation of such portion of said organized militia as shall engage in actual field or camp service for instruction, and the officers and- enlisted men of such militia while so engaged shall be entitled to the same pay, subsistence, and transportation or travel allowances as officers and enlisted men of corresponding grades of the Regular Army are or may hereafter be entitled by law, and the officer so designated and appointed shall be regarded as a disbursing officer of the United States, and shall render his accounts through the War Department to the proper accounting officers of the Treasury for settlement, and he shall be required to give good and sufficient bonds to the United States, in such sums as the Secretary of War may direct, faithfully to account for the safe-keeping and payment of the public moneys so intrusted to him for disbursement.
Sec. 15. That the Secretary of War is hereby authorized to provide for participation by any part of the organized militia of any State or Territory on the request of the governor thereof in the encampment, maneuvers, and field instruction of any part of the Regular Army at or near any military post or camp or lake or seacoast defenses of the United States. In such case the organized militia so participating shall receive the same pay, subsistence, and transportation as is provided by law for the officers and men of the Regular Army, to be paid out of the appropriation for the pay, subsistence, and transportation of the Army: Provided, That the command of such military post or camp and of the officers and troops of the United States there stationed shall remain with the regular commander of the post without regard to the rank of the commanding or, other officers of the militia temporarily so encamped within its limits or in its vicinity .
Sec. 16. That whenever any officer of the organized militia shall, upon recommendation of the governor of any State, Territory, or general commanding the District of Columbia, and when authorized by the President, attend and pursue a regular course of study at any military school or college of the United States such officer shall receive from the annual appropriation for the support of the Army the same travel allowances, and quarters, or commutation of quarters, to which an officer of the Regular Army would be entitled if attending such school or college under orders from proper military authority, and shall also receive commutation of subsistence at the rate of one dollar per day while in actual attendance upon the course of instruction
Sec. 17. That the annual appropriation made by section sixteen hundred and sixty-one, Revised Statutes, as amended, shall be available for the purpose' of providing for issue to the organized militia any stores and supplies or publications which are supplied to the Army by any department. Any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia may, with the approval-of the Secretary of War, purchase for cash from the War Department, for the use of its militia, stores, supplies, material of war, or military publications, such as are furnished to the Army, in addition to those issued under the provisions of this Act, at the price at which they are listed for issue to the Army, with the cost of transportation added, and funds received from such sales shall be credited to the appropriations to which they belong and shall not be covered into the Treasury, but shall be available until expended to replace therewith the supplies sold to the States and Territories and to the District of Colombia in the manner herein provided.
Sec. 18 . That each State or Territory furnished with material of war under the provisions of this or former Acts of Congress shall, during the year next preceding each annual allotment of funds, in accordance with section sixteen hundred and sixty-one of the Revised Statutes as amended, have required every company, troop, and battery in its organized militia not excused by the governor of such State or Territory to participate in practice marches orr go into camp of instruction at least five consecutive days, and to assemble for- drill and instruction at company, battalion, or regimental armories or rendezvous or for target practice not less than twenty-four times, and shall also have required during such year an inspection of each such company, troop, and battery to be made by an officer-of such militia or an officer of the Regular Army .
Sec. 19. That upon the application of the governor of any State or Territory furnished with material of war under the provisions of this Act or former laws of Congress, the Secretary of War may detail one or more officers of the Army to attend any encampment of the organized militia, and to give such instruction and information to the officers and men assembled in such camp as may be requested by the governor. Such officer or officers shall immediately make a report of such encampment to the Secretary of War, who shall furnish a copy thereof to the governor of the State or Territory.
Sec. 20. That upon application of the governor of any State or Territory furnished with material of war under the provisions of this Act or former laws of Congress, the Secretary of War may, in his discretion, detail one or more officers of the Army to report to the governor of such State or Territory for duty in connection with the organized militia . All such assignments may be revoked at the request of the governor of such State or Territory or at the pleasure of the Secretary of War.
Sec. 21. That the troops of the militia encamped at any military post or camp of the United States may be furnished such amounts of ammunition for instruction in firing and target practice as may be prescribed by the Secretary of War, and such instruction in firing shall be carried on under the direction of an officer selected for that purpose by the proper military commander.
Sec. 22. That when any officer, noncommissioned officer, or private of the militia is disabled by reason of wounds or disabilities received or incurred in the service of the United States he shall be entitled to all the benefits of the pension laws existing at the time of his service, and in case such officer noncommissioned officer, or private dies in the service of the United States or in returning to his pace of residence after being mustered out of such service, or at any time, in consequence of wounds or disabilities received in such service, his widow and children, if any, shall be entitled to all the benefits of such pension laws.
Sec. 23. That for the purpose of securing a list of persons specially qualified to hold commissions in any volunteer force which may hereafter be called for and organized under the authority of Congress, other than a force composed of organized militia, the Secretary of War is authorized from time to time to convene boards of officers at suitable and convenient army posts in different parts of the United States, who shall examine as to their qualifications for the command of troops or for the performance, of staff duties all applicants who shall have served in the Regular Army of the United States, in any of the volunteer forces of the United States, or in the organized militia of any State or Territory or District of Columbia, or who, being a citizen of the United States, shall have attended or pursued a regular course of instruction in any military school or college of the United States Army, or shall have graduated from any educational institution to which an officer of the Army or Navy has been detailed as superintendent or professor pursuant to law after having creditably pursued the course of military instruction therein provided. Such examinations shall be under rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of War, and shall be especially directed to ascertain the practical capacity of the applicant. The record of previous service of the applicant shall be considered as a part of the examination. Upon the conclusion of each examination the board shall certify to the War Department its judgment as to the fitness of the applicant, stating the office, if any, which it deems him qualified to fill, and, upon approval by the President, the names of the persons certified to be qualified shall be inscribed in a register to be kept in the War Department for that purpose. The persons so certified and registered shall subject to a physical examination at the time, constitute an eligible class for commissions pursuant to such certificates in any volunteer force hereafter called for and organized under the authority of Congress, other than a force composed of organized militia, and the President may authorize persons from this class, to attend and pursue a regular course of study at any military school or college of the United States other than the Military Academy at West Point and to receive from the annual appropriation for the support of the Army the same allowances and commutations as provided in this Act for officers of the organized militia: Provided, That no person shall be entitled to receive a commission as a second lieutenant after he shall have passed the age of thirty; as first lieutenant after he shall have passed the age of thirty-five; as captain after he shall have passed the age of forty; as major after he shall have passed the age of forty-five; as lieutenant-colonel after he shall have passed the age of fifty, or as colonel after he shall have passed the age of fifty-five: And provided further, That such appointments shall be distributed proportionately, as near as may be, among the various States contributing such volunteer force: And provided, That the appointments in this section provided for shall not be deemed to include appointments to any office in any company, troop, battery, battalion, or regiment of the organized militia which volunteers as, a body or the officers of which are appointed by the governor of a State or Territory.
Sec. 24. That all the volunteer forces of the United States called for by authority of Congress shall, except as hereinbefore provided, be organized in the manner provided by the Act entitled “An Act to provide for temporarily increasing the military establishment of the United States in time of war, and for other purposes,” approved April twenty-second, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight.
Sec. 25. That sections sixteen hundred and twenty-five to sixteen hundred and sixty, both included, of title sixteen of the Revised Statutes, and section two hundred and thirty-two thereof, relating to the militia, are hereby repealed.
Sec. 26. That this Act shall take effect upon the date of its approval.
Approved, January 21, 1903.
