Texas State Guard needs volunteers

San Antonio Express-News ^ | 06/14/2006

[SwinneySwitch]

The Texas State Guard is in need of volunteers as it prepares for the hurricane season.

Potential volunteers should be between ages 17 and 60. No experience or prior military service is required.

There is no pay for training and service.

For more information, call (888) 892-6445 or e-mail joshua.brandon.white@us.army.mil

[SwinneySwitch]

Not the National Guard.

The Texas State Guard are volunteers between the age of 17 and 60, and train a minimum of one weekend each month. All serve without pay except if called upon for State Active Duty by the Governor.

http://www.agd.state.tx.us/stateguard/welcome/

[cannonball]

For those who don't know, the Texas State Guard was mobilized to assist law enforcement with all the Katrina evacuees who came to Dallas. Don't know if they helped in other cities.

[SwinneySwitch]

Texas Volunteers Ping!

[wolfcreek]

Wow, didn't even know they existed! Do they get to be armed?

[husker_gunner]

Correct - In fact they are the "State Militia."

[68skylark]

I got to serve 9 years in the state guard in Indiana, before I went back to federal service. I've got to say, the experience was wonderful, for the most part -- even in the National Guard or US Army, I've never worked with a better group of patriots.

For those who are interested, you can see if your state has this kind of organization. Click here, and then click "State Organizations & SDF Links," at the bottom of the block called "SGAUS Information."

[68skylark]

Do they get to be armed?

These are state units, and every state that has one is different. (Only about half of the states have such an organization.)

In my experience, it's very rare when we handle weapons, and I wouldn't advise anyone to join if they really want a lot of weapons training. The jobs are more often administrative.

[Moose4]

Some do, some don't. The Virginia Defense Force, for example, states on their homepage that they do not handle weapons nor give weapons training; judging from the articles there, the VDF's main duty seems to be providing help during disaster relief and some homeland security duties. I also worked a little bit with some of them several years ago helping out at a Civil War re-enactment near Lynchburg (the ham radio club I was in was helping with logistics, and a few of the VDF folks were helping with crowd control and parking and whatnot).

}:-)4

[ASOC]

They are in Alaska - they have used them in the past to guard some parts of the TAPS and the Port of Valdez.

Nobody less than a Major in the outfit though, near as I can tell.

[68skylark]

I'm not in the Indiana state defense unit any more, but my friends who are tell me that one possible new mission will be to help provide OPFOR (opposing force) troops at a huge new urban combat range in Indiana. While this kind of training isn't a game, and it may be done with things like blanks or lasers or paintball guns, it CAN be a hell of a lot of fun, in addition to giving our federal soldiers good training for real-world risks they're going to face. I don't know if you'd say that this counts as "being armed."

[SwinneySwitch]

http://www.agd.state.tx.us/stateguard/welcome/

Looking some on there, I saw where they were offering CHL training classes (to be announced).

[CindyDawg]

Huh. I might like to do that.

[SwinneySwitch]

http://www.agd.state.tx.us/stateguard/welcome/locate.asp

Looks like there's a group in McAllen, Cindy.

Not a cavalry unit though>;^(