Florida National Guard

Florida National Guard
Active
Country	United States
Allegiance	Florida
Branch	National Guard
Type	Joint
Garrison/HQ	St. Augustine, Florida
Commanders
Current commander	Major General Emmett R. Titshaw, Jr., USAF
Ceremonial chief	Governor Rick Scott

The Florida National Guard is the National Guard force of the U.S. state of Florida. It comprises the Florida Army National Guard and the Florida Air National Guard.

The United States Constitution charges the National Guard with dual federal and state missions. Ordinarily under the control of the state government (in which the governor is the commander-in-chief) National Guard troops may be called to federal service (in which the president serves as commander-in-chief).

The Florida National Guard, like those of other states, provides trained and equipped units for prompt mobilization in case of war or national emergency. Guardsmen may take part in functions ranging from limited actions in non-emergency situations to full-scale law enforcement (martial law) in cases when the governor determines that ordinary law enforcement officials can no longer maintain civil control. The state mission assigned to the National Guard is "to provide trained and disciplined forces for domestic emergencies or as otherwise provided by state law."

The Florida National Guard serves as the state's "defense force."

Florida currently has no State Defense Force (SDF). The State Defense Force is a military entity described by the Florida Statutes as a state-authorized militia prepared to assume the state mission of the Florida National Guard in the event that all of Florida's National Guard units are federally-mobilized and authorized by executive order when the situation requires. If needed, the SDF would be recruited, trained, organized, equipped and deployed, under direction of the Adjutant General of Florida and the cadre of full-time state military officers within the Florida Department of Military Affairs at the department's joint training center at Camp Blanding, Florida. It is unlikely that a SDF would be created in the near future.

National coordination of various state National Guard units are maintained through the National Guard Bureau.

Army Units

• 83rd Troop Command (Tallahassee)
  • 3/20th Special Forces Group (Camp Blanding Joint Training Center)
    • HHC, 3/20th SFG
    • Support Company
  • 153rd Finance Battalion (St. Augustine)
    • 1153rd Finance Det
    • 2153rd Finance Detachment -- returned from one year Operation Iraqi Freedom deployment in November 2006.
    • 3153rd Finance Det
  • 111th Aviation Regiment
    • 1-111th AVN REGT -- Currently Supporting in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Deployed Since Sept 2006.
    • 2-111th Aviation Regiment (AOB) -- Currently deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, since May 2009
  • 171st Aviation Regiment (provide the helicopter support, UH-60)
  • 417th Signal Battalion (Composite)
    • HHD
    • 144th Transportation Company (Marianna)
    • 708th General Support Maintenance (Quincy)
    • 653rd Range Extension Company (Crestview)
• 53rd Brigade Combat Team (Returned from Kuwait in January 2010)
  • 1-124th Infantry (South Florida)
  • 2-124th Infantry (Central Florida) (Iraq 2003, Afghanistan 2006)
  • 3-124th Infantry (North Florida), (Air Assault)now redesignated, though elements still remain.
  • 1/153rd Cavalry (RSTA)
  • 2-116th Field Artillery
• 164th Air Defense Artillery Brigade
  • 1/265th ADA (SHORAD)
  • 3/265th ADA (SHORAD)
  • 254th Transportation Battalion
    • HHD 254th
    • 1218th Transportation Company
    • 806th Military Police Company (I/R)
    • 715th Military Police Company (CS)
  • 3/116th Field Artillery
    • FSC 3/116th
• 50th Area Support Group
  • 927th Combat Service Support Battalion
• 32d Army Air & Missile Defense - Det 1
• 211th Infantry Regiment (Regional Training Institute, that offers the State OCS program)
• 260th Military Intelligence Battalion
• 13th Army Band
• 146th Expeditionary Signal Battalion

Air Force Units

• 125th Fighter Wing
• 557th Expeditionary Red Horse Group (ERHG) -- currently deploying to Iraq, Afghanistan and Qatar for multiple engineering assignments in the Middle East through approximately May 2007.
• 601st Air Operations Center
• 202d RED HORSE Squadron
• 290th Joint Communications Support Squadron
• 114th Range Operations Squadron

Duties

National Guard units can be mobilized at any time by presidential order 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 TDA), 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", 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 has changed 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). The Florida Army National Guard is composed of approximately 9,600 soldiers and airmen (as of July 2007).

See also

• Florida Army National Guard
• Florida Air National Guard
• Home Guard (disambiguation)
• Militia
• State Defense Forces

References

Sources

• United States National Guard, accessed 4 Nov 2006
• Florida National Guard, accessed 20 Nov 2006
• GlobalSecurity.org Florida Army National Guard
• GlobalSecurity.org Army National Guard page
• Red Horse going to war. 16 Nov 2006 press release.

External links

• Bibliography of Florida Army National Guard History compiled by the United States Army Center of Military History
• Florida Air National Guard website