Common Sense in Defense: The Services Organizing and Equipping for the Fight, The National Guard

For the past twenty years of combat operations in the Middle East, the men and women of the National Guard have been the misused and abused element of US military power. Any discussion about the National Guard must center on the legal definition of what the National Guard is. That definition can be found in Title 32, United States Code (USC). Specifically, as follows (United States Congress, unknown date):

“National Guard” means the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard.”

“Army National Guard” means that part of the organized militia of the several States and Territories, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, active and inactive, that—

(A) is a land force;

(B) is trained, and has its officers appointed, under the sixteenth clause of section 8, article I, of the Constitution;

(C) is organized, armed, and equipped wholly or partly at Federal expense; and

(D) is federally recognized.”

“Air National Guard” means that part of the organized militia of the several States and Territories, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, active and inactive, that—

(A) is an air force;

(B) is trained, and has its officers appointed, under the sixteenth clause of section 8, article I of the Constitution;

(C) is organized, armed, and equipped wholly or partly at Federal expense; and

(D) is federally recognized.”

“Active duty” means full-time duty in the active military service of the United States. It includes such Federal duty as full-time training duty, annual training duty, and attendance, while in the active military service, at a school designated as a service school by law or by the Secretary of the military department concerned. It does not include full-time National Guard duty.”

“Full-time National Guard duty” means training or other duty, other than inactive duty, performed by a member of the Army National Guard of the United States or the Air National Guard of the United States in the member’s status as a member of the National Guard of a State or territory, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or the District of Columbia under section 316, 502, 503, 504, or 505 of this title for which the member is entitled to from the United States or for which the member has waived pay from the United States.”

“In accordance with the traditional military policy of the United States, it is essential that the strength and organization of the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard as an integral part of the first line defenses of the United States be maintained and assured at all times. Whenever Congress (author’s highlight) determines that more units and organizations are needed for the national security than are in the regular components of the ground and air forces, the Army National Guard of the United States and the Air National Guard of the United States, or such parts of them as are needed, together with such units of other?reserve components as are necessary for a balanced force, shall be ordered to active Federal duty and retained as long as so needed.” (Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 597).

In short, the National Guard (Army National Guard and Air and Space Guard as the term has been redefined by Congress in the NDA of 2021) are reserve components of the Army and Air Force with military readiness missions as defined by Title 32 USC. In addition, the National Guard has 13 Domestic Missions that are defined by Title 32, USC under Homeland Security Missions. The National Guard Bureau highlights these domestic missions in a series of Fact Sheets (National Guard Bureau, No Date).

The homeland security domestic missions have some level of priority but are those missions more important, i.e., of a higher priority than the reserve forces mission? Only Congress can give the definitive answer to this question. The conflict arises in that the state and territorial governors must view the missions as being first homeland security and domestic missions as having priority in supporting the domestic needs of those states and territories. But the military establishment consisting of the Secretary of Defense and the Joints Chiefs of Staff along with the combatant commanders, excluding the US Northern Command as the geographical combatant with domestic support mission authority/jurisdiction, view the National Guard primarily as a reserve component to be called upon when the nation’s armed forces are committed to combat operations.

In fact, the Army cannot deploy without National Guard assets to support that deployment. There is rhyme and reason to this statement. Colonel Harry Summers explains the rationale for this in his two books on Vietnam and the Gulf War. To briefly summarize, the US Army decided at the end of the Vietnam War that there existed a need to ensure the support of the American people and Congress for any war effort. By intentionally organizing the Army to rely upon the need to mobilize and federalize Army National Guard units for any combat deployment of the Army. Such an action was intended to prevent prolonged war efforts that the public did not support. This was hoped to prevent the anti-war protests as were experienced in Vietnam and to influence both Congress and the President to use American military power judiciously. When viewed from the successes of the Persian Gulf War, the strategy was successful. However, the wars in Afghanistan (now ended with the American withdrawal), Iraq, and Syria present a totally differing situation. American military forces have engaged in a twenty-year war that continues with US forces still deployed in Iraq, Syria, and Africa engaging in combat operations. There were no violent anti-war protests in American streets. Congress did not demand a withdrawal. In fact, Congress aided and abetted continued military involvement through funding by passing National Defense Authorization bills, which each president signed without veto for the administrations of Presidents Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden. For these twenty years both Army National Guard and Air Guard units have been mobilized and placed in Federal duty status for deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Africa, and other combat locals. No public protests or Congressional protests. The only thing that Congress seems to be protesting is the withdrawal from Afghanistan. In this light the strategy to rely upon National Guard formations to round out Army combat deployments was a tactical success but strategically a failure as it did not prevent prolonged warfare with a 20-year war in Afghanistan and continuing war deployment in Iraq, Syria, and Africa. What happened? A lack of American public and thus congressional interest can be the only explanation. Why is a reasonable question to ask and have answered? Perhaps it is the overall percentage of active-duty military personnel to population. At 1.3 million active-duty military personnel, this is less than 0.05% of the total US population (Council on Foreign Relations, 2020). The US reserve component (which includes the Army National Guard and Air Guard) consists of an additional 1.1 million service members (Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, 2021). This is a total percentage of 0.007% of Americans in either active or reserve status. A reasonable supposition of not involved or impacted.

What is the solution? A revisit to the Army’s and Air Force’s strategy of reliance upon National Guard (Army Guard and Air Guard) formations and units to enable and “round out” both Army and Air Force combat formations to include combat support, combat service support, tactical air support, and strategic air support mission is essential. At the height of the Cold War and often used term was a “run what you brung war”. Meaning that the American military had to be able to enter into a full-scale force on force peer conflict with the forces that were available. Thus, allowing a general call up of reserve forces (to include National Guard assets). This generally meant holding and delaying actions plus rapid reinforcements from Continental US military installations. The annual REFORGER Exercises in Europe were part of this strategy. Why? Because military (and naval) skill sets are quickly perishable and require training and time to reinstall at individual and unit levels. Reserve units have basic capabilities but not necessarily advanced warfighting skills that are combat ready. This was readily apparent during the current mobilization, activation, and deployment cycles of reserve units (to include Guard units) that included training periods of up to six months. Not an ideal or sustainable situation as the current threat is peer and near-peer countries that would include threats such as Iran and North Korea, plus other threat nations. Congress and the Defense Department need to understand this simple fact and realign the National Guard missions to Homeland Defense and Domestic Support Missions as the first mission of the National Guard with the secondary mission of ready reserves as the organized militia of the states, the territories of Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, and the District of Columbia. The World War II blueprint of Guard Divisions and Air Wings is a combat and time proven organization for future use and consideration. Organization must focus on the domestic and homeland security missions of the National Guard. This was emphasized in a report by the Heritage Foundation (Spencer J and Wortzel, 2002).

There is a unique chain of command relationship that exists with the District of Columbia National Guard and its 2,700+ citizen soldiers. This is that the District’s National Guard Adjutant General reports directly to the President of the United States, whom is the Commander in Chief of the District’s National Guard as opposed to a state or territorial governor. This has been the case since the creation of an organized militia for the District of Columbia in 1802 under President Thomas Jefferson. This was codified by Congress with the passage of the District of Columbia Militia by Act of the Congress in March 1802. Control of District of Columbia National Guard passed from the President of the United States to the Secretary of Defense pursuant to Executive Order 10030, 26 January 1949 with authority given to the Secretary to designate officials of the National Military Establishment to administer affairs of the District of Columbia National Guard.

There is currently a movement to change this chain of command relationship by making the Mayor of the City of Washington, District of Columbia as the Commander in Chief of the District’s National Guard. Ostensibly this is because of the slow response and mobilization of the National Guard to enforce martial law during and post capital riots of January 2021. The underlying desires are perhaps political in nature and a supporting argument for making the District of Columbia a state of the Union. A word of caution to the Congress. This was not the first time that the Nation’s capital has faced civil unrest and or riots and most likely will not be the last. The chain of command of the District’s National Guard/organized militia has worked well for over 200 years and worked exactly as intended during the January 2021 capital riots. The law enforcement and political failures that lead to the riots were not in the chain of command or organization of the National Guard of the District of Columbia. The response issues lie in variety of other areas to include criminal intelligence, national intelligence, over-lapping, and cross jurisdiction of the numerous federal and local law enforcement agencies within the District of Columbia. Changing the chain of command of the District’s National Guard is but a panacea to the real underlying issues and may have significant, long lasting, and unintended consequences. Tread carefully is the caution here.

The Space Guard, as addressed in Article 14, Space Force, of this series of articles on Common Sense in Defense, points out that the Space Force’s mission is unique as the only armed force with strictly strategic missions. None of which are adaptable to homeland security (not to be confused with homeland defense) or state missions. It would be inappropriate to create a Space Guard although there are currently Air Guard units that are assigned Space Force missions. It would be a better expenditure of defense funds to transfer these Air Guard units to a Space Force Reserve. The assigned personnel should be offered the opportunity to transfer to the Space Force Reserve or be reassigned to Air Guard units within the individual’s home state Air Guard structure.

The Chief of the National Guard Bureau is in an unenviable position of reporting to six bosses. First as a full voting member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Bureau Chief reports directly to the Secretary of Defense, the President’s direct representative and with legal command and authority relationship to the Services. Although a member of the National Guard, the Chief is also member of the National Guard on full-time federal active duty (as are numerous members of the Bureau to include the heads of the Army National Guard and the Air Guard). By proxy, the Chief is also subordinate to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, all of whom are advisors to the President as Commander in Chief, and the Secretary of Defense. The Chief is also subordinate and reports to both the Army, Air Force, and Space Force Chiefs of Staff on matters directly related to training and readiness of those components of the National Guard falling under the three other service chiefs. Difficult to disagree with any of the six bosses and still be a voting member of the President’s and Secretary’s principle advisory group on national defense matters. An untenable position that will have long range impacts and repercussions in any future conflict. Something to review at the Congressional level. An analysis of these issues should be conducted by the Congressional Research Service to provide insight, analysis, and appropriate courses of actions and recommendations.

Bottom line, it is time to quit abusing the men and women of the National Guard with continuous federal mobilizations and deployments. The homeland security and domestic (state and territory) missions are stretching the Guard to the breaking point.

Works Cited

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. (2021, August ND). NATO National Reserve Forces Country Database/USA. Retrieved September 3, 2021, from US Department of Defense: https://www.nato.int/nrfc/database/usa.pdf#:~:text=The%20US%20military%20reserves%20date%20back%20to%20the,number%20of%20combat%20specialties%20are%20restricted%20by%20gender.

Council on Foreign Relations. (2020, July 13). Demographics of the U.S. Military. Retrieved September 3, 2021, from Council on Foreign Relations: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military

National Guard Bureau. (No Date, No Date No Date). National Guard Fact Sheets. Retrieved August 12, 2021, from National Guard Bureau: https://www.nationalguard.mil/Resources/Fact-Sheets/

Spencer J and Wortzel, L. (2002, April 8). The Role of the National Guard in Homeland Security. Retrieved September 6, 2021, from The Heritage Foundation: https://www.heritage.org/homeland-security/report/the-role-the-national-guard-homeland-security

United States Congress. (unknown date, unknown date unknown date). 32 U.S. Code § 101 - Definitions. Retrieved August 12, 2021, from Legal Information Institute Cornell Law School: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/32/101