Iowa Army National Guard

Headquarters, State Area Command
Iowa National Guard

National Guard
Country United States
Allegiance Iowa
Branch National Guard
Type ARNG Headquarters Command
Part of Iowa National Guard
Garrison/HQ Johnston, Iowa

The Iowa National Guard is the component of the Iowa National Guard, a military reserve force with dual federal and state missions. It is empowered to function in a state status if needed to carry out limited actions during non-emergency situations all the way to full scale law enforcement of martial law when local law enforcement officials can no longer maintain civil control. The National Guard may be called into federal service in response to a call by the President or Congress.

The Iowa National Guard is a component of the United States National Guard. The Iowa National Guard maintains 56 armories in 53 communities. National coordination of various state National Guard units are maintained through the National Guard Bureau.

Iowa National Guard units are trained and equipped as part of the United States National Guard. The same enlisted ranks and officer ranks and insignia are used. National Guardsmen are eligible to receive all United States military awards. The Iowa Guard also bestows a number of state awards for local services rendered in or to the state of Iowa.

Major Subordinate Commands

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 TDY), but only as part of their respective units. However, there has been a significant amount of individual activations to support military operations. 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 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 Iowa Army National Guard was originally formed in 1838. The Militia Act of 1903 organized the various state militias into the present National Guard system.

The 133d Infantry Regiment, formerly the 2d Iowa Volunteer Infantry, served as part of the 67th Infantry Brigade, 34th Division, during World War I. The 67th Infantry Brigade was disbanded in February 1919, but formed again in 1921, still as part of the 34th Division.[1] From 1921 to 1942, it was part of the Guard in Iowa, comprising the 168th Infantry Regiment.

Approximately 50 Iowa ARNG soldiers deployed to Iraq with the 36th Combat Aviation Brigade in September 2006.

Units of the Iowa Army National Guard formed since 1917 include:

Notable members

See also

References

  1. McGrath, The Brigade, 169.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/8/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.