Florida National Guard

The Florida National Guard is the National Guard force of the U.S. state of Florida. It comprises the Florida Army National Guard and the Florida Air National Guard.

The United States Constitution charges the National Guard with dual federal and state missions. Ordinarily under the control of the state government (in which the governor is the commander-in-chief) pursuant to Title 32 of the United States Code, National Guard troops may also be called into active federal service with the United States Army or the United States Air Force (in which the president serves as commander-in-chief) and deployed world-wide with their active duty Army and Air Force counterparts.

The Florida National Guard, like those of other states, provides trained and equipped units for prompt mobilization in case of war or national emergency. Guardsmen may take part in functions ranging from limited actions in non-emergency situations to full-scale law enforcement (martial law) in cases when the governor determines that ordinary law enforcement officials can no longer maintain civil control. 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."

The Florida National Guard serves as the state's "defense force."

Florida currently has no State Defense Force (SDF). The State Defense Force is a military entity described by the Florida Statutes as a state-authorized militia prepared to assume the state mission of the Florida National Guard in the event that all of Florida's National Guard units are federally mobilized and authorized by executive order when the situation requires. If needed, the SDF would be recruited, trained, organized, equipped and deployed, under direction of the Adjutant General of Florida and the cadre of full-time state military officers within the Florida Department of Military Affairs at the department's joint training center at Camp Blanding, Florida. It is unlikely that a SDF would be created in the near future.

National coordination of various state National Guard units are maintained through the National Guard Bureau.

Army Units

 * Headquarters, Florida Army National Guard - St. Francis Barracks
 * 83rd Troop Command (Tallahassee)
 * 3/20th Special Forces Group (Camp Blanding Joint Training Center)
 * HHC, 3/20th SFG
 * Support Company
 * 153rd Finance Battalion (St. Augustine)
 * 1153rd Finance Det
 * 2153rd Finance Detachment
 * 3153rd Finance Det
 * 111th Aviation Regiment
 * 1-111th AVN REGT
 * 2-111th Aviation Regiment (AOB)
 * 171st Aviation Regiment
 * 417th Signal Battalion (Composite)
 * HHD
 * 144th Transportation Company (Marianna)
 * 708th General Support Maintenance (Quincy)
 * 653rd Range Extension Company (Crestview)
 * 53rd Brigade Combat Team
 * 1-124th Infantry (South Florida)
 * 2-124th Infantry (Central Florida)
 * 1-153rd Cavalry (RSTA) (Panhandle of Florida)
 * 2-116th Field Artillery
 * 164th Air Defense Artillery Brigade
 * 1-265th ADA (SHORAD)
 * 3-265th ADA (SHORAD)
 * 254th Transportation Battalion
 * HHD 254th
 * 1218th Transportation Company
 * 806th Military Police Company (I/R)
 * 715th Military Police Company (CS)
 * 690th Military Police Company (I/R)
 * 3-116th Field Artillery
 * FSC 3-116th
 * 50th Area Support Group
 * 927th Combat Service Support Battalion
 * 32d Army Air & Missile Defense - Det 1
 * 211th Infantry Regiment (Regional Training Institute, that offers the State OCS program)
 * 260th Military Intelligence Battalion
 * 13th Army Band
 * 146th Expeditionary Signal Battalion

Air Force Units

 * Headquarters, Florida Air National Guard - St. Francis Barracks
 * 125th Fighter Wing (125 FW) - Jacksonville ANGB/Jacksonville International Airport and 125 FW Det 1 - Homestead ARB
 * 159th Fighter Squadron (159 FS)
 * 557th Expeditionary Red Horse Group (557 ERHG) - Camp Blanding
 * 601st Air and Space Operations Center (601 AOC) - Tyndall AFB
 * 202d RED HORSE Squadron (202 RHS) - Camp Blanding
 * 290th Joint Communications Support Squadron (290 JCSS) - MacDill AFB
 * 114th Range Operations Squadron (114 ROPS) - Patrick AFB & Cape Canaveral AFS

Duties
National Guard units can be mobilized at any time by presidential order to supplement regular armed forces, and upon declaration of a state of emergency by the governor of the state in which they serve. Unlike Army Reserve members, National Guard members cannot be mobilized individually (except through voluntary transfers and Temporary Duty Assignments TDA), but only as part of their respective units. However, there has been a significant amount of individual activations to support military operations (2001-?); the legality of this policy is a major issue within the National Guard.

Active Duty Callups
For much of the final decades of the twentieth century, National Guard personnel typically served "One weekend a month, two weeks a year", with a portion working for the Guard in a full-time capacity as either Active Guard and Reserve (AGR), Army Reserve Technicians or Air Reserve Technicians (ART). This changed dramatically during the 1990-91 Gulf War, and continued on to present day, with both the Federal Reserve Components and the National Guard increasingly utilized as an "operational" force for worldwide deployment.

The current forces formation plans of the US Army call for the typical Army National Guard unit (or Army National Guardsman) to serve one year of active duty for every three years of service. The US Air Force applies a similar utilziation model for Air National Guard units (and Air National Guardsmen).

More specifically, current Department of Defense policy is that no Guardsman will be involuntarily activated for a total of more than 24 months (cumulative) in one six-year enlistment period (this policy has changed 1 August 2007, the new policy stating that Guard soldiers and airmen will be given 24 months between deployments of no more than 24 months, individual states have differing policies). The Florida National Guard is composed of approximately 9,600 soldiers and airmen (as of July 2007).