National Guard Uniform - We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, deliver personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our viewers come from. For more information or to opt out, please read our cookie policy. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use effective December 20, 2019.
Understanding has power. Help make explanatory journalism free for everyone by making a gift today. x
National Guard Uniform
Members of the Maryland Army National Guard prepare a triage tent outside an emergency room March 19, 2020, in Silver Spring, Maryland. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Army Guard Honors New Noncommissioned Officers > National Guard > Guard News
Share All Share Options: National Guard troops to be deployed to fight coronavirus. Here's what they do.
As the coronavirus continues to spread across the United States, you may see members of the National Guard in your city.
From California to New York, from Wisconsin to Texas, the National Guard is now active in all US states and territories to help local governments deal with the surge in Covid-19 cases.
It's understandable if you do a double take when you see a member of the National Guard: seeing people in military uniform riding around your neighborhood in huge military trucks can be a little unnerving at first glance. But if the National Guard is on duty near you, it means your state's governor thinks it's good that some of your neighboring civilian agencies are helping to deal with the crisis.
Guard Units From Calif. And Tenn. Join In Ukraine Training > National Guard > Guard News
So if you're worried that martial law is looming, the good news is that it won't happen where you live, or anywhere else in America. Cory Schake, an expert on civil-military relations at the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, said National Guard members are "not imperial stormtroopers, but our fellow citizens."
The behavior of members of the National Guard is not so terrible. Among other things, they disinfect public places, deliver food and help test for Covid-19, the official name of the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo opened the state's first mobile Covid-19 testing center in New Rochelle on March 13, 2020. Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images
Working under the authority of the state governor, they provide staff, vehicles and other equipment for operations. In some cases, vigilantes may perform some law enforcement functions, but this is always under the direction of the local police.
From The California Army National Guard: Spc. David Chang, Left, And Sgt. James Peterson. Competitors In
In summary, the National Guard helps fill gaps identified by civilian leaders, but does not carry out military takeovers. "The National Guard is called in when there are insufficient local resources to meet the need," said Lindsay Kohn, a National Guard specialist at the Naval War College.
Below is a guide to what the National Guard can and is doing to fight the coronavirus at Guard locations, and what that means for your hometown.
Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengel, head of the National Guard, explained to reporters on March 19 why his forces should be called upon to help during the coronavirus outbreak.
"With Covid-19, it looks like we have 54 separate hurricanes in every state, territory and district of Columbia," he said. "When disaster strikes, we don't have to mobilize from base. We pack lunches, we go to work, because we're in the communities where these things happen. We live there, we can react faster."
National Guard Is Not Exempt From Vaccine Mandate, Defense Secretary Says
This is an important point to understand: a state's National Guard is made up of people from that state. Members of the National Guard are farmers, coal miners, doctors, lawyers, teachers, postal workers, grocery store clerks, and more. Sometimes, mostly on weekends, they train with their units. However, most of the guards are doing their daily work.
"The National Guard comes from the community and knows the community," said Christine Warmuth, the Pentagon's senior policy fellow at the RAND Corporation from 2014 to 2016.
Governor Andrew Cuomo addresses the National Guard on March 23, 2020 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. A guard turns the Javits Center into a temporary hospital to help fight the coronavirus. John Minchillo/AP
In times of crisis, such as the coronavirus, the governor mobilizes the state's National Guard to assist civilian agencies in their efforts. This means that the person in charge when called upon is the governor, so the elected leader is still in charge, not the military. In rare cases, the president can federalize the Guard, taking it under his control along with the secretary of defense. However, this is done only in the rarest of cases.
Kuwait: Kansas Army National Guard Couple Deploys Together > National Guard > State Partnership Program News
Governors can use what's called an Emergency Management Assistance Agreement if they believe more resources are needed to address their state's problems. Generally speaking, it allows governors to ask another state to send some National Guard members, police officers, firefighters and other essential workers to help.
So, if there is a major coronavirus outbreak in California, much less cases in Wyoming, the governor of California can request that members of the Wyoming National Guard be sent to California for a period of time to work under his direction. .
As for what the National Guard can actually do, retired Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Blum, who commanded the National Guard from 2003 to 2008, told me the force can perform many missions, but is limited to four:
The personnel and vehicles at the Guard's disposal - both on the ground and in the air - make it a great asset in times of crisis. If, say, Michigan's medical authorities are overwhelmed, the state's National Guard could use trucks and planes to deliver medicine.
Ceremony Introduces New Virginia National Guard Hqs Shoulder Patch > Virginia National Guard > News
The same can be done to distribute pallets of emergency rations, usually simple foods such as rice or soup, if people struggle to access food on a regular basis. When hospitals are full, members of the National Guard can build new field hospitals or convert existing facilities, such as stadiums or hotels, to care for more patients.
National Guard troops help with crowd control, ensure products get to where they need to go, and support law enforcement as needed. In the latter case, members work to provide local police chiefs with more manpower rather than taking the law into their own hands. Some members will be armed depending on what they are asked to do, but not all will be armed.
The National Guard has advanced communications systems - large radios, teleconferencing equipment, and more. - so local, state and federal government leaders can stay in touch even in the most remote areas.
One such system, called DIRECT, allows National Guard members to use cell service even in disaster areas or when tons of people are trying to get online at once. This allows them to stay connected even in the most difficult situations.
Meet Some Of The National Guard Protecting The Capitol In D.c.
If power is needed quickly—say, during a power outage while treating severely infected patients—National Guard members can set up and use generators to keep the lights on.
The National Guard has medics helping with the medical side of the coronavirus response. If some hospitals need more doctors to handle the growing flow of patients, the Guard can provide that assistance.
Although doctors are not required, members of the National Guard can help direct traffic at testing sites, freeing up civilian health workers to focus on actually administering the tests.
For all these reasons, Bloom says, seeing the National Guard in your city "should be a calming factor, not a fear factor."
Army National Guardsman Builds Future In Ny
Democratic and Republican governors in every state and territory have called on their National Guard so far to help with the coronavirus response. Both of these missions, in particular, are useful examples of what the National Guard can do when it comes to your hometown in the coming weeks.
Let's start with New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo activated members of the state's National Guard on March 10 to establish a "cordon zone" around New Rochelle, a New York suburb hit hard by Covid-19.
According to a press release at the time, Cuomo authorized security guards to "help deliver food to homes and clean up public areas in the cordoned off area." This makes sense: New Rochelle has about 80,000 people, and it would be difficult to ensure that those in the catchment area are adequately served by the city's civil government alone.
National Guard troops help collect food for distribution to local residents in New Rochelle, New York. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images
Rifle Toting Vet Arrested After Dressing Up, Trying To Join National Guard Crowd Control Formation
The National Guard sorts food items at a community center in New Rochelle, New York. John Taggart via Getty Images for The Washington Post
On March 12, about a dozen National Guardsmen arrived at the one-mile holding area, carrying pallets of food — bags of rice, cans of cream of mushroom soup, and more. started shooting. They pick it up at one of the volunteer community centers in town and help sort it out
Army national guard uniform, guard uniform, air national guard dress uniform, us army national guard uniform, army national guard dress uniform, national guard class a uniform, national guard dress uniform, russian national guard uniform, air national guard officer uniform, air force national guard uniform, us national guard uniform, national guard rsp uniform
0 Comments