National Guard in the USA: What is it and what is your job?

Optimally equipped, well trained and hundreds of thousands of units strong: the National Guard of the United States hurries its reputation. US President Donald Trump now sends 2000 members of them to Los Angeles to take the unrest according to deportation raids. But what exactly is the troop? And how does it differ to the army of the United States? The most important questions and answers:

The US national guard. She exists on paper parallel to the US Army, is closely interwoven with her, but does not officially belong to her. There are historical reasons.

Since the United States was created, the state sees itself as thoroughly federal. This was also true for military clamping, especially in the early days of the young nation. Each federal state set up its own militia, for example to defend areas taken against American indigenous people. The founding fathers and their descendants rejected a central, national army for a long time. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the armed forces of the states consisted of militia. They were supported for larger campaigns by volunteers who were recruited for the respective battles.

With the “Militia Act” from 1903, the individual militias were standardized as a national guard to generalize training and equipment. In addition, the Federal Government of the United States was granted powers that the individual militias can be assumed to the US President in the event of war or in national emergencies. In return, the Ministry of War financed parts of the equipment of the state militias.

The military force, from which the US Army ultimately emerged, was erected during the American War of Independence. It was relatively small compared to the federal militias. For a long time, the congress rejected a central, large army. This changed when the United States entered the First World War. Nevertheless, around 40 percent of the soldiers who fought in France were national guards.

In parallel to the National Guard, the US Army was gradually rebuilt. Even today, the two army structures exist side by side, but the National Guard has now interlocked closely with the US Army. Army and the National Guard recruits complete their training together. Members of the National Guard are also involved in the Army as reservists.

The big differences between the two organizations are their area of ​​application and their command structure. The National Guard is organized as a reserve force for the armed forces. Although it can be federized in the event of a battle and thus drawn into military service, its current main task consists in the mostly non-military support of the Army. In addition, the national guard can be used in disaster cases or in the event of riots that endanger national security. Us Army is not allowed in Germany.

The US Army is also a purely federal military army. The national guard is primarily subject to the respective states. However, the command in the National Guard Bureau, a semi-independent organizational unit of the Ministry of Defense, is centralized.

Depending on the state, the number of national guards varies between around 2500 (Delaware) and 22,000 (Texas). The total number of units was around 430,000 in 2023. For comparison: In 2022, the US Army maintained 1.39 million active soldiers and 860,000 reservists.