Colorado Department of Military and Veterans Affairs

The Colorado Department of Military and Veterans Affairs is a state agency of the Government of Colorado. It supervises both the Colorado National Guard (including the Colorado Army National Guard and Colorado Air National Guard), and non-military state safety agencies.

The Department consists of the Department of Military Affairs, and the Division of Veterans' Affairs, and is headed by the Adjutant General of Colorado.

Colorado National Guard
The United States Code, Titles 10 and 32, specifically charge the National Guard with dual federal and state missions. In fact, the National Guard is the only United States military force empowered to function in a state status. Those functions range from limited actions during non-emergency situations to full scale law enforcement of martial law when local law enforcement officials can no longer maintain civil control.

The National Guard may be called into federal service in response to a call by the President or Congress. When National Guard troops are called to federal service, the President serves as Commander-In-Chief. The federal mission assigned to the National Guard is: "To provide properly trained and equipped units for prompt mobilization for war, National emergency or as otherwise needed."

The Governor may call individuals or units of the Colorado National Guard into state service during emergencies or to assist in special situations which lend themselves to use of the National Guard. The state mission assigned to the National Guard is: "To provide trained and disciplined forces for domestic emergencies or as otherwise provided by state law."

Colorado National Guard's involvement in Colorado labor struggles
The Colorado National Guard attacked a tent colony of 1,200 striking mineworkers in the Ludlow Massacre on April 20, 1914. Nineteen were killed including two women and eleven children who were asphyxiated in a hole dug beneath one of the tents.