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5TH CALIFORNIA BRIGADE - A California State Guard unit, with headquarters in Fresno and battalions at Camp San Luis Obispo, Bakersfield, Porterville and Fresno. Assigned to the Northern Area Command this brigade began a rapid expansion in the summer of 1996 from a cadre to a fully staffed organization by absorbing hundreds of draftees that had been passed over for federal service, often for health reasons or because of minor criminal records. A smattering of retired California National Guard NCOs were assigned to supervise the unit and do most of the training of the new draftees; the retirees were greeted with general hostility from the peacetime membership, who resented the “intrusion” into what had been more of a social club. Nonetheless, it was the first State Guard unit to be called into service, in October 1996 to support the mobilization of the 40th Infantry Division and the 49th MP Brigade. Members of the unit assumed responsibility for providing security for National Guard armories as well as providing logistic and administrative support for the mobilizing National Guard troops. Most notably, personnel of the unit ran the rifle qualification range at Camp Roberts, allowing the mobilizing troops to all certify their marksmanship proficiency without having to provide range safety officers, ammunition handlers and emergency medical personnel. Following departure of the National Guard for overseas service the unit was armed with M-1 Garand rifles from federal stockpiles and began patrolling central California and protecting critical petroleum and power infrastructure in the region. As an investigation by the Army would later reveal, the unit also ran a clandestine “hit squad” that engaged in a series of nighttime raids against suspected “enemy sympathizers”, a category that quickly grew to include Mexicans, leftists, union officials, peace activists and outspoken college professors. Bodies of these innocents were dumped, tortured and mutilated, in various remote spots within the unit’s area of responsibility. The 221st MP Brigade, an Army Reserve unit, was brought back to California from Hawaii in December 1997 in part to investigate and hunt down the death squad and purge the state guard unit of dangerous elements. Upon arrival the state guard unit was brought under federal control and the brigade’s officers were replaced by Army Reservists from the 221st. Resistance to the change was fierce and the Army brought in local law enforcement to embed with the unit’s patrols; desertion soared and by the end of January 1998 the unit was incapable of concerted action. At that point the Army officially stood down and disbanded the unit, assigning certain individuals to local police forces and the militias that the area’s sheriffs were standing up and disarming the rest.


10TH CALIFORNIA CADET BRIGADE - This unit started the war as a nominal brigade in the California Cadet Corps, a paramilitary youth training program for children from elementary school to college ages, based in schools. The 10th Brigade was a state-level formation that conducted leadership training for units assigned to other brigades, with no student units directly assigned. In the summer of 1997, with the war spreading and increased preparedness for nuclear conflict the governor requested that the Cadet Corps stand up two disaster response units composed of 16-18-year old boys. The 10th Brigade used its existing command structure and recruited suitable boys from school units in the Los Angeles area. July was spent conducting first aid, traffic control and disaster relief training at the El Toro Marine Corps airbase in Orange County. When nuclear war broke out in Europe the unit remained on the base on high alert but with the start of the school year the unit was demobilized and its members sent back to school, liable for immediate recall if needed. That call came several times during the fall as nuclear war scares gripped the city. The final callout was in early December, when Soviet nuclear strikes on refineries in Wilmington, Carson and El Segundo ignited a firestorm and set off a panicked mass exodus out of the city. The following days were chaos, but eventually a group of 250 boys rallied at the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach. Many had armed themselves during the preceding days; the rest were armed by the mixed force of civilian security guards and recovering Marines and sailors guarding the facility. A Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sergeant, healing from wounds received in Bandar Abbas, Iran, assumed command and integrated the guard force into the unit in leadership positions. The formation remained in the enclave throughout the winter and spring, fortifying the perimeter and turning away all outsiders, considered lost by the Governor and the military chain of command, fed by a false report that the base had been overrun. The Mexican invasion ended this period of inactivity; a salvage expedition sent by XVI Corps discovered the force, which handed over the facility and accepted deployment to the front to the south. The Governor, upon hearing that the unit had been found intact, demanded that it be spared front-line duty due to the youth of many of its soldiers and its haphazard and light armament. That request was accepted and the brigade was assigned for responsibility for security in the Corps rear area, guarding convoys, warehouses and the Corps rear headquarters. The brigade saw a lot of action in this role, battling Mexican Army infiltrators and their allied street and biker gangs. It retreated through the ruins of LA and once out of the urban area was assigned to dig field fortifications in the Tejon Pass, which were later used by the 221st MP Brigade. Following the disbandment of the 5th Brigade the 10th was moved north to central California, establishing its headquarters in Bakersfield and being released from federal duty. Once there the severely depleted unit absorbed additional troops, both carefully screened former members of the 5th Brigade as well as a detachment of lower-quality recruits from the Army’s 91st Training Division that had remained in Bakersfield to protect the refinery complex and nearby oilfields.
Subordination: State of California
Current Location: Bakersfield, CA
Manpower: 600