Induction of National Guard into the U. S. Army.
The advent of war had an important effect on the National Guard, even though its personnel were in Federal service. Originally its units and individuals had been inducted for a training period of 'twelve consecutive months.' This period was extended by the Act of Congress approved Aug. 18, 1941, and, also, many National Guardsmen had been released to the states after completion of substantial training.
So long as we were in the training rather than a fighting period, and so long as the operation of the Selective Training and Service Act was such as not to call other citizens with dependents, equity seemed to require such a release of National Guardsmen with similar burdens of personal dependency. Under the provisions of a Presidential Executive Order of Aug. 21, 1941, therefore, there were released to the states a total of 19,651 enlisted men of the National Guard.
These veteran Guardsmen, trained for a year with their units on field maneuvers, were too valuable to stand at home, relatively idle in a military sense, especially when their experience was needed for training the new Army units raised in 1942. Accordingly nearly all of them were recalled to Federal service, only those comprising the most striking hardship cases being permitted to remain in their home states.
The National Guard itself, in accordance with the provisions of Section 111, National Defense Act, has thus gone into Federal service where it will remain until the end of the present war as an integral part of the first line defenses of the Nation, when its units and individuals will revert to state control. The National Guard entered Federal service as formed units. Although numerically increased by assignment of selective service personnel, these units had remained substantially intact through the period initiated by the training legislation of 1940. When their service was indefinitely extended by the actual war situation, they were more closely integrated into the rest of the Army. Their divisions were remodelled to conform to the more effective and modern pattern. All National Guard cavalry regiments were completely mechanized. Anti-tank elements were withdrawn from many artillery units and became the nucleus of new tank destroyer battalions. Bands were reassigned to stations where their value as morale builders would be most effective. Other personnel was transferred elsewhere in order for the Nation to take fuller advantage of their seasoned experience, as skilled pilots, as expert administrators, and as veterans experienced in various other lines.
National Guard on Fighting Fronts.
Scattered National Guard tank companies from seven different states, rapidly welded into two tank battalions and sent to the Philippines in the autumn of 1941, served with distinction in meeting Japanese invasions and covering the withdrawal to Bataan. The 200th Coast Artillery from New Mexico was also sent to the Philippines and earned the distinction of being the first National Guard unit cited by the War Department for exceptional service in action. The achievement of this regiment is all the more remarkable in that less than a year previously it had been converted from the 111th Cavalry. Its personnel had within a remarkably short time learned new and very technical tasks and, serving in unfamiliar tropical terrain, speedily adapted themselves to new conditions and proved themselves capable of standing beside the best modern soldiers anywhere in the world and achieving distinction in that position.
The flag of the United States first raised by American combat troops on the soil of Australia, forming the initial increment of forces for the reconquest of the Far East from that base, was raised by a National Guard field artillery regiment from South Dakota on Jan. 16, 1942. By now other National Guard units are overseas; indeed, National Guard units today comprise much of our task force upholding the interests of the United States in distant lands. The sun does not set upon the National Guardsmen.
Serving thus in many lands, the National Guard has now been merged with the Army of the United States. It had been padded with volunteers, flooded with drafted increments, and supplemented with officer replacements. It has taken over the task of training selectees for whom replacement centers were not adequate. It stood up excellently during its training, as many observers at the maneuvers in Louisiana, Tennessee, Washington, California, and the Carolinas have testified. It has shown itself to be a better trained force than the National Guard in 1917. Its personnel when inducted were already better trained, better organized and better led than the National Guard mobilized for World War I. This betterment is the fruit of twenty years of experience and improved training methods and equipment.
Commissioned Officers from the National Guard.
Upon the declaration of war, National Guard units were prepared to make a major contribution to the expansion of the Army. The number of enlisted men commissioned initially upon induction totaled approximately 3,000. Complete figures on the number of National Guard enlisted men who have earned commissions since the declaration of war are not available but the number runs into thousands. One regiment alone was cited by the Chief of the Army Air Force for having contributed 160 of its personnel as officers through the Air Force Schools. This regiment with over 1,000 men on the day of induction has seen more than half of its enlisted personnel commissioned in the Army of the United States. The new units of the Army whose commissioned and enlisted cadres were in large measure furnished by the National Guard cannot be listed here. It is enough to say that the National Guard can rightfully be proud of this phase of its contribution to the war effort. Not the least important work of the Guard has been the contribution of the various State Staff corps in organizing and operating the Selective Service activities of their states. In more than two thirds of the states, the State adjutants general have been made the State directors and approximately 90 per cent of the State Staff forces come from former State Staff officers who had been previously trained for this specific assignment.
Formation of the State Guard.
Since the induction of the last units of the National Guard into Federal military service on Oct. 6, 1941, its functions in home localities have been assumed by State Guard units, raised under Section 61 of the National Defense Act of 1920, as amended specifically for this purpose on Oct. 21, 1940. The National Guard Bureau became the Federal Government's administrative agency for the State Guard and this assignment was not changed by the reorganization of the War Department on Mar. 9, 1942, under the First War Powers Act. Units of the State Guard are now organized in all states except Arizona, Montana, Nevada, and Oklahoma.
The size and function of the State Guard have been considerably increased since the declaration of war on Dec. 8, 1941. On that date its strength totaled 109,186 enrolled. Since then the imminent prospects of danger on home coastal areas, and somewhat inland, too, and a general access of interest in military affairs among our citizens have stimulated enrollments so that the growth has been rapid and substantial. In addition, there have been formed various auxiliary forces or reserves, created in small units for purely local service in grave emergencies, which still more considerably augments the early figures. This data cannot, of course, be made public in these times of war and possible invasion.
The advent of war likewise caused a change in the character of State Guards coincidental with the growth in size. In addition to being a local or state force for use in domestic emergencies and sudden disasters due to natural causes, the State Guard has become also a combat force.
It became important that State Guards might be used to protect coastal areas and also to smother parachute and air-borne troop landings. On Apr. 30, 1942, the War Department announced new principles covering the training and probable employment of State Guard units as follows:
'State Guards remain State forces for use within the boundaries of their own States, but their functions have been fitted into a broad pattern for the home defense of the Nation, and service commanders are asked to arrange so they may be assigned appropriate emergency missions.
'The mission of State Guards is to provide an adequate, trained force for employment within the boundaries and jurisdiction of their States as directed by the State executive and legislature. The State Guards are expected, under normal circumstances, to be used for the benefit of the State to meet domestic emergencies from war or other causes, and to guard and protect vital industries, installations, communications, and facilities when local police and civil guards are deemed inadequate. In addition, the State Guards may be expected to assist Military Police and other units of the Army, to suppress the efforts of enemy agents, such as organized fifth column groups and parachute troops, and to cooperate with Federal military authorities in extreme emergencies especially in the evacuation of civilians and in information and observation duty at or near frontiers.
'The War Department, through the National Guard Bureau and Service Commanders, has circulated to the various State Guard authorities suggested training programs to standardize progressive and balanced training. The War Department emphasizes the fact that it desires every effort made to make the training of State Guards interesting and practical, and indicates that proficiency should be developed by the use of realistic methods of training. Instructions on this point are: 'Conditions and situations, which might confront the State forces should be simulated as closely as possible in problems and exercises. Imagination and ingenuity should be used to think up and conduct practical and realistic problems and alerts.''
To train State Guard personnel for these new and enlarged functions, officer's schools were organized in several states. In certain areas, special schools dealing with modern defensive combat practices were conducted for officers and men from several adjacent states.
Local Volunteer Protective Units.
The citizens of the nation were, furthermore, not satisfied to leave to formal Federal or state forces the protection of the country. Each wanted to take his part. Even prior to Pearl Harbor, thousands in veterans' associations had been organized for defense along the Pacific Coast. Within hours of the Japanese attack, these turned out as volunteer groups to cover electrical substations and transmission lines, river bridges, shipyards, aircraft factories, and exposed beaches. Other groups of citizens elsewhere have formed local protective units of a military character. The rising had much the same character as that of the initial British Home Guard organization after Dunkirk, although not so intensive nor so all inclusive. In fact, responsible authorities were somewhat embarrassed by the violence of this patriotic uprising. It was necessary on Apr. 13, 1942, to issue a solemn warning to the states that such groups would have to conform to rules of international law regarding uniforms, organizations, responsibility, and authority, lest an enemy consider them guerrillas not entitled to the rights of combatants if found with arms in their hands.
During the course of the year this situation has been regularized. Under an established principle of law, it has been insisted that each state has a right to recognize or to suppress volunteer military organizations formed within its boundaries. There can be no such thing as a private army. All forces must stem from public authority. Action consequently has been taken toward assimilating such groups as small units into the various State Guards, or toward the formation from the personnel of these groups of additional State Guard units of a highly localized and volunteer character. In some localities these have been formally organized as a State Guard Reserve or as auxiliary 'minutemen' for distinctive emergency service near their individual homes.
The remarks of an inspector, who visited a local unit may be taken as an illustration of the spirit and value of the State Guard everywhere:
'The company, at the present time, * * * is so manned, organized, and housed that it can, with intensive effort, be developed into an efficient organization. * * * The cooperation of the community is satisfactory. The officers and men are zealous and enthusiastic. They are all entitled to credit for their unselfish and patriotic contributions to the national war effort.'
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