In a nutshell, State Guards (I’m going to call them SDF from this point forward to help distinguish them from the National Guard) are the military forces of the various states that comprise the United States. Before the National Guard acquired its federal role, each state’s National Guard units were the military forces of each state. Large-scale mobilizations, such as for WW2, led to the realization among the states that they had lost their sovereign military forces (state militia) when the National Guard was turned into a joint state-federal reserve with the feds holding the trump card. The SDF arose to fill the gap.
So what is the SDF? In a nutshell, the SDF is the National Guard sans a federal mission and federal funding. Technically, the Department of Defense oversees the SDF of the various states. In practice, the states operate their SDF pretty much as they see fit. When mobilized, the SDF possess all of the powers of the National Guard within their respective states. Theoretically, the SDF can respond to security crises, natural disasters, and the like in the same fashion as the National Guard.
Except in a handful of locations, the SDF are rather a joke. No one gets paid, unless they are mobilized by the state.[1] All funding comes from the state, which effectively means that there is no funding. SDF members supply their own uniforms and most of their own equipment. In theory, there are height and weight standards, physical fitness standards, and so forth. In practice, beggars can’t be choosers.
In the wake of the large-scale mobilizations of National Guard formations in the 2000’s, there is a renewed interest in the SDF. However, interest has not been renewed to the point at which SDF members will be paid to attend weekend drills and a two-week AT. Interest has not been renewed to the point at which SDF members will receive a clothing allowance or an issue of equipment intended for use in their state mission. Without funding, the SDF is simply dead in the water. It’s hard to see where the money is going to come from in this economic climate. Goodness knows that California is not in a position to organize a proper SDF, although by many accounts the CMR is in better shape than most SDF around the country.
Webstral
[1] This does happen occasionally. When my National Guard unit was mobilized 2004, many of the folks who did the admin work for us at Camp Roberts were members of the California Military Reserve, which is the SDF under a different name. They were paid at their given rank and basically treated like National Guardsmen under Title 32, which is the categorization of National Guardsmen mobilized under orders of the state governor. (Title 10 means a National Guardsman has been mobilized under federal orders, at which point they are no longer state forces.)
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