Massachusetts National Guard
The Massachusetts National Guard is the National Guard component for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded as the Massachusetts Bay Colonial Militia on December 13, 1636, it contains the oldest units in the United States Army. What is today's Massachusetts National Guard evolved through many different forms. Originally founded as a defensive militia for Puritan colonists in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the militia evolved into a highly organized and armed fighting force. The Massachusetts militia served as a central organ of the New England revolutionary fighting force during the early American Revolution and a major component in the Continental Army under George Washington.
First muster of the Massachusetts Bay Colonial Militia, spring of 1637
The Lexington Minuteman monument
Veterans of the 'Minutemen of 1861', those among the first to answer President Abraham Lincoln's call to arms on April 15, 1861, in a group photograph on the 36th anniversary on April 15, 1897
Massachusetts National Guardsmen north of Bütgenbach, Belgium during World War II
National Guard (United States)
The National Guard is a state-based military force that becomes part of the U.S. military's reserve components of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force when activated for federal missions. It is a military reserve force composed of National Guard military members or units of each state and the territories of Guam, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, for a total of 54 separate organizations. It is officially created under Congress's Article 1 Section 8 ability to "raise and support armies". All members of the National Guard are also members of the organized militia of the United States as defined by 10 U.S.C. § 246. National Guard units are under the dual control of state governments and the federal government.
1953 postage stamp
Army National Guard soldiers at New York City's Penn Station in 2004
First muster of the East Regiment (present-day Massachusetts Army National Guard) in Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Spring 1637
A National Guardsman in 1917