TECHTALK

As officials in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill seek ways to ease the pressure on over-deployed active-duty, National Guard and reserve troops, more and more eyes are falling upon little-known, state-operated bands of volunteers that for decades have backed up the country’s regular military forces in times of emergency.

At most recent count, roughly 170,000 National Guard and reserve personnel were deployed on active duty around the world, including more than 30,000 serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In fact, two additional brigades—from North Carolina and Arkansas—were mobilized in October. They were needed, officials said, to relieve some of the 128,000 active-duty, National Guard and reserve troops currently deployed in Iraq.

With many of these units absent, some states are turning to their own, locally controlled organizations—typically called state guards or state defense forces—to perform many of the homeland-security and disaster-response functions normally performed by the National Guard and reserves.

In 2001, for example, after hijacked airliners crashed into the World Trade Center, the New York Guard assisted the city in managing the flow of essential goods into the city.

In September of this year, when Hurricane Isabel cut a swath through the mid-Atlantic region, the Virginia Defense Force helped run the state’s Emergency Operations Center in Richmond.

Earlier this year, when units of Washington state’s National Guard were activated, the State Guard assisted in mobilization operations at Fort Lewis.

An estimated 22 states maintain defense forces, with a total strength of perhaps 12,000 men and women. “It’s kind of hard to pin down exact numbers,” said Georgia Defense Force Col. Byers W. Coleman, executive director of the State Guard Association of the United States, which is headquartered in Fayetteville, Ga.

The state units—unlike the National Guard—have no official, nationwide organization, he explained. They are established and operated entirely by individual states. They cannot be deployed outside their own borders.

Typically, members attend a one-day drill per month and a three-day training session each year. They receive no pay while training, but are paid standard National Guard rates when activated for a state or local emergency, officials explained. They even pay for their own uniforms.

“We’re authorized by Army regulations to wear the woodland BDU (battle-dress uniform) and Army dress greens,” explained Brig. Gen. Ben Lucas, head of the Maryland Defense Force, which is headquartered in Pikestown, Md.

Because the state forces are not federal, “there can be no U.S. symbols on the uniform,” Lucas said. “The buttons can have the Maryland shield on them, but not that of the United States.”

Until now, the state defense forces have received little assistance from the federal government. That, however, may be about to change.

More than a dozen members of the U.S. House of Representatives this summer co-sponsored a bill calling for increased coordination between the state defense forces and federal agencies.

The bill, known as the State Defense Force Improvement Act of 2003, would strengthen the ability of such organizations to assist in homeland security missions and fill in for National Guard units that are deployed in federal service, said Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., the measure’s chief sponsor. Specifically, the bill would:

The bill specifies that no federal agency would be required to offer such assistance, and that states wouldn’t have to accept it. In fact, states would have to reimburse the Defense Department for any direct or indirect training costs. They also would have to assume sole liability for any injury or damage involving state defense personnel training with U.S. equipment or on U.S. property.

“This is a common-sense proposal that is win-win for everyone involved,” Wilson said in a released statement. “State defense troops are highly motivated people, ready and willing to help their country in this time of war, and the states need capable and dependable forces for homeland security duties.”

Wilson—who recently retired from the Army National Guard—estimates that the bill could provide up to 250,000 additional troops, specifically for homeland security, under state control, at no cost to the federal budget.

That’s perhaps 20 times the number currently serving in state defense forces. But recruiting that many additional volunteers is “imminently doable,” Coleman insisted. Congressional recognition would provide an important boost for the forces, he said.

The legislation, awaiting action in the House Armed Services Committee, is unlikely to make much progress during this congressional session. The measure, however, could see action next year, a spokesman for Wilson said.

Meanwhile, interest in finding ways to make more use of part-time volunteers, like the state defense forces, seems to be on the increase. Thomas F. Hall, assistant defense secretary for reserve affairs, told reporters earlier this year that his office was studying the matter.

“One of the things we’ve looked at is how we can use volunteerism,” he said. The Pentagon is developing a concept called the “continuum of service.”

This concept “sets aside the traditional definitions of active and reserve components and recognizes that service may range from fulltime duty to individuals who are available in the event of mobilization, but do not participate in military training or perform duty on a regular basis,” Hall said.

For example, “we have a huge pool of retirees,” he said. “I am one of them. We don’t think we are too old. We can still serve. I am serving now.”

As models for the kinds of volunteer organizations that the department is considering, Hall pointed to the Civil Air Patrol and the Coast Guard Auxiliary. Both were established by Congress and are sponsored by uniformed services.

Neither the CAP nor the Coast Guard Auxiliary arms its members, nor do most state defense forces. Some states train their guards with .22 caliber weapons, shotguns and maybe some old M-14 rifles, Coleman said. But they are the exceptions, rather than the rule, he said.

In most cases, State Guards don’t participate in combat or law-enforcement missions. With this in mind, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for them to provide weapons and training to their troops, Coleman said. “That’s a lot of money. That’s why I think weapons are a waste of time for us.”

Where the state defense forces currently differ significantly from the CAP and Coast Guard Auxiliary, officials agreed, are in the areas of training and mission focus.

While the federally sponsored organizations offer highly advanced training to their volunteers, many state units—especially in an era of reduced tax revenues—can offer only limited opportunities. They often train with local National Guard troops. In September, for example, the Georgia Defense Force participated in a weapons of mass destruction exercise at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, near Atlanta.

Many of their volunteers, however, have no prior military training at all, Lucas said. “They come in because they like the military and they want to participate.”

For those without military skills, the state forces can offer only the basics, Coleman said. “We teach them how to stand at attention, to know the ranks, a little bit of drill and ceremony,” he said.

It would be useful for the state troops to have access to the mail-order and e-mail training available to active-duty personnel, but that is prohibited at present, he said.

Another factor, officials agreed, is the need for a clearer idea of what the state forces should be doing. The CAP and Coast Guard volunteers have well defined missions, they said. But missions for state units vary across the country.

In many cases, the state forces simply fill in, as needed, for local National Guard troops. In some instances, they fill specific, narrow niches. Maryland’s small force of 250 volunteers, for example, focuses on providing legal and medical services needed in civil emergencies.

“In a catastrophic emergency, you never have enough medical services,” said Lucas. Lawyers, he said, are useful to military units, to help with wills and other legal matters relating to deployments. “I’d like to have two lawyers in every county,” he said.

Because of the professional nature of the Maryland unit’s mission, age is less of a concern than it would be in more strenuous active-duty services. Still, Lucas would like to attract more younger recruits. Many current members are over age 72, he said. Two died recently of heart attacks.

Young recruits, however, pose their own problems, Lucas said. “Seventeen-year-olds—what do you do with them?” They could serve on burial details and color guards, he noted. Other possibilities include working in motor pools and operating patrol craft on Chesapeake Bay.