Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus
In the U.S.A., the various State Guard (sometimes referred to as [insert state name] State Defense Force) units- not to be confused with the [State] National Guard- are probably the closest thing to a Gendarmerie outfit we've got.
Here are a couple of examples:
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/e...te-guard-5301/
http://www.gasdf.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Me..._Defense_Force
AFAIK, most, but not all, states have such a force, but I imagine in a T2K scenario, the state legislatures and governors of states that don't would quickly authorize them.
I don't recall seeing mention of such units in any of the CONUS campaign modules, but they should be included. |
Currently, there might be 20 states with state guard units, since some have dissolved in the last decade (Alabama in 2014 and Massachusetts in 2016 are two I know no longer exist). At the time of the Twilight War, the following states had active state guard units: Alabama, Alaska, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts (starting in 1994), Michigan (1988-98), Mississippi (starting in 1986), New Mexico, New York, North Carolina (1988-96), Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah (until 2001), Vermont, Virginia, and Washington, for a maximum of 23 states from 1994-96. They vary widely in size - New Mexico currently has a total of 25 State Guard. A lot of them also receive no weapons training (in 2014, a DOD IG survey of 19 guards found only 4 authorized weapons training); they're disaster response personnel who fill in for the National Guard if the NG is deployed overseas or supplement the NG if they're called out for an emergency.
Also, note that membership in a State Guard does not exempt one from being drafted, because it's not Federal service. Also, military reservists may not serve in State Guards per 32 USC 109.
In the late 80s, Utah had to dismiss all but 31 of their state defense force because of infiltration by neo-Nazis and felons. In the T2K universe, it's possible that State Guards would have been similarly infiltrated by New America, particularly in the Virginia and Maryland regions (West Virginia has no state law authorizing a Guard unit).