I didn't know if this could qualify for General...

[Appleskates]

Why is our National Guard used overseas? It just doesn't seem to make sense to me if they're used overseas when they are meant for civil disturbances, natural disasters, and invasion. Shouldn't they just integrate the NG units that are overseas into the army?

[NicholasJohnson]

Deploying the NG overseas is nothing new. The 29th Infantry Division of D-day fame is and was a National Guard Division.

I know this is from wiki, but:


The Army National Guard of the United States is a component of the United States Army.


During World War I, the National Guard provided 40% of the US Army's combat forces. Guard membership doubled in 1940, and provided 19 divisions during World War II, of which the National Guard units were among the first to deploy overseas and the first to fight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_National_Guard

[enigma]

Same here in the UK, the TA (our "national guard") sent dudes over to Iraq etc although i dont know how many and in what capacity (i.e. infantry, medical etc).

Same in WW2, half the army was like TA based. If a battalion was numbered over 4 iirc they were terratorials, quite a lot of the divisions sent to war were the terratorial duplicate of the regular army division etc

[Fallschirmjäger]

Why is our National Guard used overseas?

I think going on some stories seen on the net i read over awhile,its becuase of shortages in perosonel.Like also as they have to rotate units out of say iraq,afghanistan etc...I had read how they are doing tours way longer than normal too,like as they need to send them home or elsewhere for rest,and when short on numbers,the national guard have to be mobilised i think to replace some of the main units overseas.

[2ltben]

Why is our National Guard used overseas? It just doesn't seem to make sense to me if they're used overseas when they are meant for civil disturbances, natural disasters, and invasion. Shouldn't they just integrate the NG units that are overseas into the army?
Better than using them to break strikes?