Montana's Possible Move to a State "Home Guard" Militia Group

What about weapons and tactical training?

The gist I get is that both the NY State Guard and the NY State Naval Militia are entirely unarmed and exist primarily for search & rescue, disaster relief, etc. I noticed their website does make mention of "infantry", "cavalry", "medical", "military police", etc units but nothing about actual military functions and capabilities. The Naval Militia is basically a motley collection of pleasure craft and a few of those RHIBs like the US Coast Guard use.

reply to post by ChrisF231

The gist I get is that both the NY State Guard and the NY State Naval Militia are entirely unarmed and exist primarily for search & rescue, disaster relief, etc. I noticed their website does make mention of "infantry", "cavalry", "medical", "military police", etc units but nothing about actual military functions and capabilities

.

There is some firearms training involved. Physical training isn't all that tough. I have some family involved who are US armed forces vets and I have friends involved who are, how shall we say, on the portly side. There is somethign for everyone in that group. You can find out all you want to know about it at this website:

TheHighRoad.org

With that said I was able to find that the NY Guard provided security detail at ground zero and for the 2004 Republican National Convention. Those 2 missions alone would tend to make me believe that they would be armed at least when the mission calls for it. A group of uniformed men on security detail around ground zero armed only with a sling shot and a mean wagging finger (like a Mom would have done) would hardly detour any bad element that came snooping around. (That was an attempt at levity and not a jabbing insult)

The Naval Militia is basically a motley collection of pleasure craft and a few of those RHIBs like the US Coast Guard use

This is what I was able to find about the Naval Militia, you will notice that they do not mention anything about pleasure craft. Again, I would doubt that someone's personal Criss Craft would be called into service for use in a military exercise unless under extreme measures. Imagine the liability issues on that.....

New York is one of six states to maintain a state naval force. The New York Naval Militia operates a fleet of 10 patrols boats known as the Military Emergency Boat Service which assist local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and the United States Coast Guard on New York’s waterways.

Coa st Guard News

Thanks for posting your thoughts on this one! I got to learm even more about this topic in researching your points!

Thanks for the responses, personally I think it's a shame that such a valuable resource is being ignored by the state and federal governments. Many of the state defense forces receive next to nil in terms of funding.

I think:

1) Each of the 50 states, Washington DC, and the 5 US territories should be required to maintain a state/territorial defense force. Currently only 22 states and 1 US territory (Puerto Rico) do, so we are about halfway there lol. In the past virtually every state and territory had a state/territorial defense force, I think Oklahoma was the sole exception. The American Samoan, Hawaiian, Alaskan, and Guamanian Territorial Guards saw active combat in World War II. The Guamanians heroically resisted the Japanese invasion of 1941 and were overwhelmed by sheer numbers ... bear in mind that there were only 600 US Marines, US Navy sailors, and Guamanian guardsmen to fight against 6,000 Japanese. They had no working artillery, very few working machine guns or mortars, no airplanes, and only 1 minesweeper and 2 patrol boats. Yet they still fought the Japanese. During the Japanese occupation of the island they banned the singing of the Star Spangled Banner so the Guamanians sang it in Chamorran instead ... the Japanese apparently never caught on to what they were doing. The island was liberated in 1944 and remains a US territory today

2) Each state would be required to adhere to a basic organization based on the population ... obviously American Samoa with only 67,000 people is going to have a smaller force than California with 37,000,000. The personnel should wear the standard US Army/US Navy uniforms with state/territory distinctions (as they currently do) and be equipped with the standard US military weapons, gear, and equipment. Half the cost would be borne by the state/territorial government and half by the Federal government.

3) Should be primarily infantry based, with medical, engineer, signals, and logistics support units. State Naval Militia units would of course continue to focus on coastal waterway operations and port security (as they currently do). I believe it's either Texas or Virginia where the defense force has a riverine patrol/amphibious operations unit. In the Southwest and Western states horse mounted troops in a mounted infantry role would be tremendously useful in the remote, rugged areas along the US-Mexico border so that's another unique idea.

reply to post by ChrisF231


We were thinking very much along the same lines in regards to some of your points there. I think all 3 of your ideas are good ones, and very sensible. Which begs me to question why in the world would it not be mandatory for all 50 states to have a State Guard especially since our Constitution makes allowace for each state to create their own State Defense Guard?

I mean really, if the SHTF and all other forms of 'law and order' are otherwise occupied what happens in those states with no State Guard? I know it would fall to the local police forces but lets face it, we've all seen the headlines about state and local governments having to cut back on funding to police forces. Just how effective would they be in a situation like that? I'm not even sure I would blame the local police forces if they walked away in a situation like that to be honest.

This only lends creedence to your idea of having the State Guard numbers based on your population pool. But how would one go about that in light of the fact that by and large the State Guard is a volunteer unit and not paid unless deployed? Better recruitment for one but would that be enough? (Damn my always questioning mind....)

Well, in any case this really has been an eye opening couple of days for me. I'd like to thank everyone that contributed to this thread and challenged me to learn many new things.... one is never too old to learn.