I recently retired from the Army National Guard. This is going to be a boring post that has nothing to do with romance but everything to do with the National Guard and what it is and how we’re different from all the rest of the Armed Forces. I like to educate—I can’t help it.

The National Guard has been around since 1609–way before the actual country we defend. We are the Massachusetts Minutemen, the “well-regulated militia” that has the right to bear arms in the Constitution. When we swear the oath of enlistment or commission, we agree to obey the orders not only of the President (the office, not the person), but also of the Governor of the state to which we enlist/commission. Because the National Guard are the State Militias, it is only the National Guard that has the legal right to perform military operations inside the borders of the United States, and only at the behest of the Governor. So I wasn’t in the National Guard; I was in the North Carolina National Guard (and the Michigan Guard before that).

So any natural or man-made emergencies that need increased security or…well, well-regulated manpower, the Governors mobilize their National Guards: obviously, security after 9/11, but also ice storms, snow storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, SuperBowl security, Olympic security, crowd control. All (most of?) the security during the Civil Rights movement: National Guard.

But then, we can also, of course, be mobilized by the President as part of the Federal forces. At that point, we’re actually Federalized and no longer under control of the State apparatus at all. Most of the National Guard who responded to Hurricane Katrina was actually Federalized for the duration, because we were operating outside our own jurisdiction. So when I went from Greensboro, NC, to Hammond, LA, the Federal government paid my way (and I got a nice free trip on a C-130!).

But we train with the other Armed Forces. I went to Army Basic Training at Fort Jackson, SC. But I did Officer Candidate School through the National Guard (that’s also in the Constitution—Article I, Section 8: “To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.” But after OCS was over, I went to Officer Basic Course with Regular Army Second Lieutenants (the actual job I did was a Chemical Officer. OCS taught me how to lead, Chemical OBC taught me what to tell my soldiers to do).

And we’re different from the Reserves, because the Reserves are the Federal-only forces who train one weekend a month, two weeks in the summer like the National Guard, but report only to the President, not to the Governor. Which makes moving when in the Reserves not nearly as difficult as inter-state transfers in the National Guard.

And of course, there’s the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard, the Air Force wing of the Guard. I was in the Army National Guard. No rivalry there…no!

So, a down-and-dirty introduction to the National Guard. Hope you enjoyed it.

I haven’t looked very hard, but I know of only one author who has written about a National Guard soldier: Virginia Kantra’s Sea Witch has a National Guard hero. Can anyone out there tell me of any more?