State Guards in USA?

[Mohoender]

Do you have any insight on state guards? What equipment do they have? Do you think that they would be active during the twilight war? What do you think about their potential role?

[pmulcahy11b]

In Texas, the State Guard basically has whatever weapons they have to bring to the party. Their uniforms are the old pickle-skins (by now they may have BDUs), and they have whatever web gear and equipment they can get a hold of (often cast offs from the National Guard). I don't know what their training schedule is like, but their training is minimal, and they are composed largely of those who either can't qualify for National Guard service or are vets who no longer want to be fully connected to the military. They do, however, man the armories when the National Guard unit is away at annual training; I'm not sure about a deployment.

In T2K, they'd make a credible guerrilla force, but not a regular military-quality unit.

[Webstral]

Mo,

Here's a link to get you started. Of course, if you are thinking about State Guards in Twilight: 2000, one has to go back about 15 years. The picture is much sparser back then. However, there are some threads in the archives in which we discuss developments in State Guards in the Twilight: 2000 universe. The general consensus was that you could justify halfway decent light infantry equipment, Vietnam-era weapons, and a few vehicles here and there under select circumstances. Overall, though, the State Guards failed to live up to their potential, albeit for very undrstandable reasons.

http://www.sgaus.org/

Webstral

[Webstral]

On a side note, I’m very excited about the possibilities for properly run State Guards—hereafter referred to as SDF (State Defense Forces). There is a growing need for organized bodies of citizens to conduct civil defense missions. Our highly mobile and urbanized citizenry is losing touch with the spirit of cooperation and self-reliance that marked our forebears. More widespread involvement in civil defense could go a long way towards addressing a number of our ills, disaster response being only one among them.

I’ll discuss one beneficial side effect. For those of you who have teens or who work with teens, you are probably aware that we do a horrible job of giving our teens positive outlets for building their self-esteem and associating with other adults in a fashion that enables them to practice being adults, not just big kids. Maybe it’s different outside the US. Here, teens have limited opportunities to build their self-esteem before they turn 18. Athletics are fine, but what happens when you don’t make the team? What happens when you do something that is viewed with mild scorn, like art or music? Let’s not even go into whether getting good grades genuinely builds self-esteem for teenaged boys.

No, boys in particular need accomplishments to build their self-esteem. No amount of fakery and patting on the head will suffice. Getting an A is fine, but it’s not a real accomplishment of the manly sort. Participating as an auxiliary in the local SDF unit—now there’s something to be pointed to. Learning a little bit of D&C, some first aid, some civil defense—earning a ribbon to be worn on a set of BDUs… Of course, there are the Scouts, and I’m all in favor of the Scouts. They’re dying out, though. Something needs to replace them. A teen who for whatever reason isn’t on the football team can do something worthy of regard as an SDF auxiliary.

Enough of my political machinations.

Webstral

[HorseSoldier]

I have only had very limited experience with the State Defense Forces in the states of Alabama and Alaska.

The Alabama version seemed to be a joke made up of a mix of over the hill retired military guys who might have been pretty squared away 20 years and 50 pounds ago and the sort of wannabes who, in law enforcement circles, tend to think that being a mall cop makes them practically cops. That may be a skewed view -- my only interaction with them was talking to some of them briefly at a Memorial Day PR/recruiting thing they were also at.

I may be wrong, but I don't think the AL SDF had any training or authorization to carry weapons, and their activities mostly involved assisting with hurricane/tornado relief and custodial activities at armories when units deploy.

Up here in Alaska, the AK SDF is apparently a more serious organization that I'm told gets weapons training and its members are sworn constables so that they can provide a more credible support to the National Guard operating under state authority or Alaska law enforcement. Apparently they're pretty serious about their bearing arms -- one member sat in on my current unit's Javelin NETT training. All that said, the only mission I've heard about them doing is the same armory custodial one. Despite the LE credentials I'm pretty certain (coming at the topic from both the Guard and LE side of things) that they don't do any of the Counter Drug stuff that some members of the 'Guard do, at least not in the Anchorage area.

In a T2K context, I would think that any existing State Defense Forces on the books, plus whatever rear detachment deployed National Guard (and local Army/Air Force/USMC/USN Reserve units, eventually) would end up forming the backbone of militia companies and battalions. The quality of those forces is probably dubious at best, given the limited resources and desperation of the times they'd be stood up, and I don't expect that many that were pushed very hard would last, at least not without some operational seasoning. Any that are still on the books by 2000 might be reputable forces (or might not).

[Webstral]

I agree that quality of the State Guards would be dubious at best. I have written the existence of an Arizona State Guard (AZSTAG) into my history of Arizona. They don't do very well, despite an urgent Johnny-come-lately effort to make them credible. 2nd Brigade, which covers metro Phoenix, falls apart when things get tough in 1998. 1st Brigade, which covers the northern 2/3 of the state, remains in being through 2001 largely by absorbing police and de-federalized troops who make the escape from the Phoenix debacle.

The one AZSTAG formation that does pretty well is 3rd Brigade. Though a brigade in name only in 1998, the formation has a lot of retired senior NCOs who passed through Fort Huachuca and Davis-Monthan AFB en route to retirement. These guys form a fairly solid kernel that keeps the formation in existence through the dark days.

The New Mexico State Guard also survives into 2001, although in very truncated form. The state government at Santa Fe controls a few thousand civilians and a few hundred modern-day dragoons. These guys are the remnants of the New Mexico State Guard, which was otherwise wiped out during the fighting in the south or disintegrated at Albuquerque.

Webstral