Alabama Army National Guard - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Alabama Army National Guard is a component of the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

and the United States National Guard

United States National Guard

The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...

. Nationwide, the Army National Guard
Army National Guard
Established under Title 10 and Title 32 of the U.S. Code, the Army National Guard is part of the National Guard and is divided up into subordinate units stationed in each of the 50 states, three territories and the District of Columbia operating under their respective governors...

comprises approximately one half of the US Army's available combat forces and approximately one third of its support organization. National coordination of various state National Guard units are maintained through the National Guard Bureau.

Alabama Army National Guard units are trained and equipped as part of the United States Army. The same ran

United States Army enlisted rank insignia

The chart below represents the current enlisted rank insignia of the United States Army.This chart represents the U.S. Army enlisted rank insignia with seniority increasing left-to-right inside a given pay grade...

United States Army officer rank insignia

United States Army officer rank insignia in use today.-History:The structure of U.S. ranks has its roots in British military traditions. At the start of the American Revolutionary War, uniforms, let alone insignia, were barely affordable and recognition of ranks in the field was problematic...

and insignia are used and National Guardsmen are eligible to receive all United States military awards

Awards and decorations of the United States military

Awards and decorations of the United States Military are military decorations which recognize service and personal accomplishments while a member of the United States armed forces...

. The Alabama Guard also bestows a number of state awards

Awards and decorations of the National Guard

Awards and decorations of the National Guard are presented to members of the United States National Guard and sometimes to members of the State Defense Forces in addition to regular United States military decorations...

for local services rendered in or to the state of Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

Units

- 62nd Troop Command
- 167th Theater Support Command
- 142d Signal Brigade (inactivated in August 2008)
- 142d Battlefield Surveillance Brigade (activated in September 2009)
- 20th Special Forces Group
  20th Special Forces Group (United States)
  The 20th Special Forces Group or 20th SFG is one of two Army National Guard groups for the United States Army Special Forces...
- 31st Chemical Brigade
- 1st Battalion, 131st Aviation Regiment
  1st Battalion, 131st Aviation Regiment (United States)
  The 1st Battalion, 131st Aviation Regiment is an Army helicopter battalion that deployed to Iraq in September 2006 as a subordinate unit of Task Force Mustang to be a part of the US military Operation Iraqi Freedom. The battalion currently flies UH-60 Blackhawk aircraft...

Duties

National Guard units can be mobilized at any time by presidential order

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

to supplement regular armed forces, and upon declaration of a state of emergency

State of emergency

A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...

by the governor

Governor

A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

of the state in which they serve. Unlike Army Reserve

United States Army Reserve

The United States Army Reserve is the federal reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the reserve components of the United States Army....

members, National Guard members cannot be mobilized individually (except through voluntary transfers and Temporary DutY Assignments TDY), but only as part of their respective units. However, there has been a significant amount of individual activations to support military operations (2001-?); the legality of this policy is a major issue within the National Guard.

Active Duty Callups

For much of the final decades of the twentieth century, National Guard personnel typically served "One weekend a month, two weeks a year

One weekend a month, two weeks a year

"One weekend a month, two weeks a year" is a former recruiting slogan used by the U.S. Army National Guard. It indicated the amount of time an individual would need to spend actively in the Guard to be a Guardsman with benefits...

", with a small portion of each unit working for the Guard in a full-time capacity. New forces formation plans of the US Army were announced in early 2007 modifying the recent (2001–2006) National Guard active duty callup pace. The new plan will nominally anticipate that each National Guard unit (or National Guardsman) will serve one year of active duty for every five years of service. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates imposed "a one-year limit to the length of [Federal deployments] for National Guard Soldiers." Callups by Alabama authorities for state emergencies are not included in this policy.

History

The Alabama Army National Guard was originally formed in 1807. The Militia Act of 1903

Militia Act of 1903

The National Guard Bureau is the federal instrument responsible for the administration of the National Guard of the United States established by the United States Congress as a joint bureau of the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force. It was created by the Militia Act of 1903...

organized the various state militia

Militia

The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...

s into the present National Guard system.

On the morning of July 21, 1861, the Union Army under the command of Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell

Irvin McDowell

Irvin McDowell was a career American army officer. He is best known for his defeat in the First Battle of Bull Run, the first large-scale battle of the American Civil War.-Early life:...

, in an effort to cripple the newly assembled Confederate Army at Manassas, Virginia

Manassas, Virginia

The City of Manassas is an independent city surrounded by Prince William County and the independent city of Manassas Park in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Its population was 37,821 as of 2010. Manassas also surrounds the county seat for Prince William County but that county...

, fired the opening shots of the first major battle of the Civil War. Both armies were largely made up of volunteer militia with regiments of both sides wearing blue and gray uniforms. The brunt of the Union attack fell on the Confederate left flank. Confederate Brig. Gen. Bernard Bee, having recently resigned from the U. S. Army and still wearing his blue uniform, realized that the army's left flank was seriously exposed. Gen. Bee ordered the Fourth Alabama to advance rapidly in order to plug the gap in the Confederate line. For over an hour, the Fourth Alabama held position and repulsed several Union regiments. The gallant stand of the Fourth Alabama stalled the Union advance and gave the Confederate forces more time to regroup. The regiment played a prominent part in the fighting all day and contributed to the Confederate victory. The Battle of First Manassas proved to both sides that the Civil War would be a bitterly contested struggle. The Fourth Alabama went on to fight in every major battle in the Eastern Theater of the Civil War and never surrendered its colors. The heritage and traditions of the Fourth Alabama are carried on by the 1st Battalion, 167th Infantry, Alabama Army National Guard.

Following the inactivation of the 31st Infantry Division in 1968, the Alabama Army National Guard was allotted the 31st Brigade, 30th Armored Division, located in Tuscaloosa. In 1973 the 30th Armored Division was inactivated and Alabama was assigned a new major headquarters, the 31st Armored Brigade (Separate). In 2002, the 31st Armored Brigade was inactivated, merging into the 149th Armored Brigade headquartered in Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

. Alabama was again assigned a new major headquarters, the 122nd Chemical Brigade, later redesignated as the 31st Chemical Brigade.

On February 13, 2009, the comedian Sacha Baron Cohen

Sacha Baron Cohen

Sacha Noam Baron Cohen is an English stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and voice artist. He is most widely known for his portrayal of three unorthodox fictional characters: Ali G, Borat, and Brüno...

tricked guard officers into allowing him to participate in training at the Alabama Military Academy at Fort McClellan

Fort McClellan

Fort McClellan, originally Camp McClellan, was a United States Army post located adjacent to the city of Anniston, Alabama. During World War II, it was one of the largest U.S. Army installations, training an estimated half-million troops...

. The officers were led to believe that Cohen was a reporter making a German TV documentary. The ruse ended when a young Alabama cadet recognized the actor. Said Guard spokesperson Staff Sergeant Katrina Timmons on March 16, 2009 about the incident, "It's an embarrassment to the Alabama National Guard. Since then we have put in protocols to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Historic units

131st Cavalry Regiment (United States)
167th Infantry Regiment (United States)
200th Infantry Regiment (United States)
117th Field Artillery Regiment (United States)
203rd Field Artillery Battalion (United States)

External links

Alabama National Guard, accessed 20 Nov 2006
GlobalSecurity.org Alabama Army National Guard, accessed 20 Nov 2006
Alabama National Guard article, Encyclopedia of Alabama
Bibliography of Alabama Army National Guard History compiled by the United States Army Center of Military History