[00:07.03]The National Guard is one of the organizations of the United States Army and Air Force.
[00:13.90]Its members are not active duty soldiers and airmen.
[00:14.01]But National Guard members can be ordered to serve with them.
[00:18.63]The National Guard is the modern result of a law passed more than 200 years ago.
[00:26.10]It was the Militia Act of 1792.
[00:30.78]It required every free, able, white,male citizen between the ages of 18 and 45 to serve in a militia.
[00:42.53]Each state controlled and trained the members of these military groups.
[00:48.67]In 1905, a law was passed that required all male citizens to serve in the nation's armed forces.
[00:59.51]By then, the militia was known as the National Guard.
[01:04.32]The law placed the Guard under the control of state governments and the federal government.
[01:12.96]National Defense Acts in 1920 and 1933 extended this federal power.
[01:20.28]Since then, the President has been able to order National Guard units to active duty in a national emergency.
[01:29.00]State governors may order units to active duty duringemergencies such as strikes, natural disasters or riots.
[01:39.37]Today, the law does not require citizens to join the armed forces or the National Guard.
[01:46.40]Citizens can volunteer to join both groups.
[01:50.45]Each state, territory and the District of Columbia has its own National Guard.
[01:58.13]The Army National Guard has about 350,000 citizen soldiers.
[02:04.82]About 100,000 airmen serve in the Air National Guard.
[02:09.62]During peacetime, National Guard members attend 48 training periods a year.
[02:17.07]The federal government pays them for the time they are training.
[02:20.96]The army and air force National Guard units serve with active duty soldiers in the United States and around the world.
[02:30.47]In recent years,
[02:32.14]the President has ordered them to serve during the Gulf War and as peacekeepers after the conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo. |