Colorado Army National Guard
Encyclopedia
The Colorado Army National Guard is a component of the United States Army
and the United States National Guard
. Nationwide, the Army National Guard
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.
Colorado Army National Guard units are trained and equipped as part of the United States Army. The same ran
ks
and insignia are used and National Guardsmen are eligible to receive all United States military awards
. The Colorado Guard also bestows a number of state awards
for local services rendered in or to the state of Colorado
.
The Colorado Army National Guard is composed of over 3500 soldiers, maintaining 30 armories in 24 communities (as of 1999).
to supplement regular armed forces, and upon declaration of a state of emergency
by the governor
of the state in which they serve. Unlike Army Reserve
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.
", with a portion working for the Guard in a full-time capacity. The current forces formation plans of the US Army call for the typical National Guard unit (or National Guardsman) to serve one year of active duty for every three years of service. More specifically, current Department of Defense
policy is that no Guardsman will be involuntarily activated for a total of more than 24 months (cumulative) in one six year enlistment period (this policy is due to change 1 August 2007, the new policy states that soldiers will be given 24 months between deployments of no more than 24 months, individual states have differing policies).
, predecessor of the Colorado Army National Guard, was originally formed in 1860. The Militia Act of 1903
organized the various state
militia
s into the present National Guard system. In 1914 in Ludlow, Colorado
a unit of the guard was deployed during a strike by coal miners, but the sympathies of the militia leaders allied with company management resulted in the deaths of 20 people
.
Originally Colorado was a part of the CONUS
regional command, called the Southern Department
. This was later redesignated, in 1920, as Eighth Corps area
. with Headquarters at Fort Sam Houston
Texas. In 1941 Colorado was transferred to the new Central Defense Command
.
Approximately 300 Colorado ARNG soldiers deployed to Iraq with the 36th Combat Aviation Brigade in September 2006.
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.
Colorado 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...
ks
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 Colorado 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 Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
.
The Colorado Army National Guard is composed of over 3500 soldiers, maintaining 30 armories in 24 communities (as of 1999).
Units
The following units are part of the Colorado Army National Guard:- 168th Regiment, Regional Training Institute (RTI)
- Centennial Training Site (CTS)
- 100th Missile Defense Brigade (Ground-based Midcourse Defense) - operators of the National Missile Defense system Ground-Based Midcourse DefenseGround-Based Midcourse DefenseGround-Based Midcourse Defense is the United States system for intercepting incoming warheads in space. Currently, it is a major component of the U.S. national missile defense strategy aimed against ballistic missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles...
- 2d Battalion, 135th Aviation Regiment2d Battalion, 135th Aviation RegimentThe 2nd Battalion 135th Aviation Regiment is an Army helicopter battalion which deployed to Iraq in September 2006 through August 2007 as part of Task Force Mustang, Operation Iraqi Freedom. The battalion flies the UH-60 Black Hawk, CH-47 Chinook and the OH-58 Kiowa...
-- deployed to Iraq August 2006 through August 2007. - 157th Field Artillery Regiment (United States)157th Field Artillery Regiment (United States)The 157th Regiment has been both an Infantry and Field Artillery regiment of the Army National Guard.The regiment was first constituted in 1917 from the 1st Colorado Infantry.-History:...
- 1st Battalion (now inactivated and reorganized as 1st Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment)http://co.ng.mil/arng/units/infantry/default.aspx
- 2nd Battalion (reflagged 3-157th FA Regiment)
- 8th WMD Civil Support Team
- 89th Troop Command
169th Fires Brigade169th Fires Brigade (United States)The 169th Fires Brigade is an artillery brigade in the US Army National Guard. It is part of the Colorado Army National Guard. The 169th Fires Brigade is currently composed of:* Headquarters & Headquarters Battery...
- 2nd Battalion, 157th Field Artillery Regiment (reflagged 3-157th FA Regiment)
- High Altitude Aviation Training Site (HAATS)
- 3650th Maintenance Company
- 928th Medical Battalion (Emergency Medicine)
- 220th Military Police Company - Denver/Globeville Armoury, Denver, Colorado
- 193rd Military Police Battalion (deployed to Afghanistan in March 2010 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom)
- 140th Signal Company
- 117th Space Support Battalion
- HHD, 5th Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne)
- 101st Army Band
- 1157th Engineer Team (Firefighting) - stationed at Ft. Carson, CO. Deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2004–2005 and attached to the 420th Engineer Brigade. The 1157th is a headquarters team which operationally controls three to seven fire truck teams.
- 199th Engineer Detachment (Firefighting)
- 200th Engineer Detachment (Firefighting)
- 947th Engineer Company (Combat Support Equipment) - Headquartered at Fort Carson, and deployed to Iraq's Al-Anbar Province October 2005-2006. The 947th Engineer Company (CSE) was augmented with a platoon of the 160th Engineer Company (CSE) from Middletown, DelawareMiddletown, DelawareMiddletown is a town in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the town is 18,871.-Geography:Middletown is located at with an elevation of ....
. The 947th was attached to the Germany Based 54th Engineer BN (Combat)(Mechanized, and the 130th Engineer Brigade. Initially deployed to Al Asad Airbase, Iraq, the 947th Engineer Company quickly assumed horizontal engineer missions throughout extreme Western Iraq and was instrumental in the construction of COP Rawah and COP North. The 947th Engineer Company (CSE) was re-located to RamadiRamadiRamadi is a city in central Iraq, about west of Baghdad. It is the capital of Al Anbar Governorate.-History:Ramadi is located in a fertile, irrigated, alluvial plain.The Ottoman Empire founded Ramadi in 1869...
, Iraq in January 2006 and remained there until their redeployment in October 2006. - 117th Space Battalion
- MI Detachment, Company B, Special Troops Battalion, 86th Brigade Combat Team (Mountain), VT ARNG
Duties
National Guard units can be mobilized at any time by presidential orderPresident 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 yearOne 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 portion working for the Guard in a full-time capacity. The current forces formation plans of the US Army call for the typical National Guard unit (or National Guardsman) to serve one year of active duty for every three years of service. More specifically, current Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
policy is that no Guardsman will be involuntarily activated for a total of more than 24 months (cumulative) in one six year enlistment period (this policy is due to change 1 August 2007, the new policy states that soldiers will be given 24 months between deployments of no more than 24 months, individual states have differing policies).
History
The Colorado Volunteer MilitiaMilitia
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...
, predecessor of the Colorado Army National Guard, was originally formed in 1860. 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
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
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. In 1914 in Ludlow, Colorado
Ludlow, Colorado
Ludlow is a ghost town in Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. It was famous as the site of the Ludlow Massacre in 1914. The town site is nestled at the entrance to a canyon in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It is located along the western side of Interstate 25...
a unit of the guard was deployed during a strike by coal miners, but the sympathies of the militia leaders allied with company management resulted in the deaths of 20 people
Ludlow massacre
The Ludlow Massacre was an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado on April 20, 1914....
.
Originally Colorado was a part of the CONUS
Conus
Conus is a large genus of small to large predatory sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs, with the common names of cone snails, cone shells or cones. This genus is placed in the subfamily Coninae within the family Conidae. Geologically speaking, the genus is known from the Eocene to the Recent ...
regional command, called the Southern Department
Southern Department
The Southern Department was a former department of the government of England and later the Kingdom of Great Britain. It had a variety of responsibilities, including domestic and Irish policy, colonial policy and foreign affairs concerning southern European powers such as France, Spain, Portugal,...
. This was later redesignated, in 1920, as Eighth Corps area
Corps area
A Corps area was a geographically-based organizational structure of the United States Army used to accomplish domestic administrative, training and tactical tasks from 1920 to 1942. Each corps area included divisions of the Regular Army, Organized Reserve and National Guard of the United States...
. with Headquarters at Fort Sam Houston
Fort Sam Houston
Fort Sam Houston is a U.S. Army post in San Antonio, Texas.Known colloquially as "Fort Sam," it is named for the first President of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston....
Texas. In 1941 Colorado was transferred to the new Central Defense Command
Central Defense Command
Central Defense Command was established on 17 March 1941 as the command formation of the U.S. Army responsible for coordinating the defense of the Midwest region of the United States. A second major responsibility of CDC was the training of soldiers prior to their deployment overseas...
.
Approximately 300 Colorado ARNG soldiers deployed to Iraq with the 36th Combat Aviation Brigade in September 2006.
Historic units
- 157th Infantry Regiment (United States)
- 137th Field Artillery Battalion (United States)137th Field Artillery Battalion (United States)The 137th Field Artillery Battalion is a Field Artillery Battalion of the Army National Guard.-History:the 137th Field Artillery Battalion is not te be confused with the 137th Field Artillery Regiment. In 1959 the majority of the unit became the 140th Signal Battalion which has been pared down to...
- 142nd Field Artillery Battalion (United States)142nd Field Artillery Battalion (United States)The 142nd Field Artillery Battalion is a Field Artillery Battalion of the Army National Guard.-Lineage:Organized 27 July 1885 in the Colorado National Guard as company C. 1st Regiment Infantry .Reorganized 23 November 1895 at Greeley as Company D...
- 144th Field Artillery Battalion (United States)144th Field Artillery Battalion (United States)The 144th Field Artillery Battalion is a Field Artillery Battalion of the Army National Guard. It was formed from the 1st Battalion of the 157th Field Artillery Regiment in 1955.-History:...
- 168th Field Artillery Battalion (United States)
- 169th Field Artillery Battalion (Colorado)169th Field Artillery Battalion (Colorado)The 169th Field Artillery Battalion was a Field Artillery Battalion of the Army National Guard.-History:Unfortunately there were two units issued this number this is the Colorado unit...
- 183rd Field Artillery Battalion (Colorado)183rd Field Artillery Battalion (Colorado)The 183rd Field Artillery Battalion was a Field Artillery Battalion of the Army National Guard.-History:Unfortunately there were two units issued this number this is the Colorado unit...
- 193rd Tank Battalion (United states)
- 140th Signal Battalion (United States)
- 188th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion (United States)188th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion (United States)The 188th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion was a Antiaircraft Battalion in the United States Army,-Lineage:Constituted 28 June 1955 as the 188th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion and allotted to the Colorado National Guard...
- 199th Engineer Battalion (United States)
See also
- Coats of arms of U.S. Armor and Cavalry RegimentsCoats of arms of U.S. Armor and Cavalry RegimentsThis page has been split as follows:* Coats of arms of U.S. Armor Regiments* Coats of arms of U.S. Cavalry Regiments-See also:* commons:Field Army insignia of the United States Army* Corps insignia of the United States Army...
- Coats of arms of U.S. Artillery RegimentsCoats of arms of U.S. Artillery RegimentsCoats of arms of US Artillery Regiments are heraldic emblems associated with field artillery, air defense artillery, and coast artillery regiments in the US Army...
- Coats of arms of U.S. Infantry RegimentsCoats of arms of U.S. Infantry RegimentsCoats of arms of US Infantry Regiments are heraldic emblems associated with infantry regiments in the US Army. By Army regulation, all regiments of the US Army organized under a Table of Organization and Equipment are authorized a coat of arms to be displayed on the organization's standard, called...
- Coats of arms of U.S. Air Defense Artillery RegimentsCoats of arms of U.S. Air Defense Artillery RegimentsCoats of arms of US Air Defense Artillery Regiments are heraldic emblems associated with Field artillery, Air Defense Artillery, and coast artillery regiments in the US Army...
External links
- Bibliography of Colorado Army National Guard History compiled by the United States Army Center of Military History
- The Colorado National Guard Homepage
- The 168th Regiment, Regional Training Institute (RTI) Homepage (Secure Site)
- The Centennial Training Site (CTS) Homepage (Secure Site)
- Stories on DVIDS of the Colorado National Guard
- http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Heraldry/ArmyDUISSICOA/ArmyHeraldryUnit.aspx?u=7444 Colorado command
- loveland Armory- http://www.ci.loveland.co.us/cultural_services/cultural_services_museum_historic_loveland%20v2.htm