Summary: How are Things to go on with the Army National Guard’s Division Structure?
Raymond Bell
The Army National Guard (which had been referred to as National Guard until 1948) looks back at the roots of its combat divisions shortly before the First World War. During the Second World War nine National Guard divisions fought in the Pacific operation theatre, and the remaining ten were sent into Europe, two of them in Northwest-Europe and in Italy. Until the deployment in Iraq in 2003 the Korean War had been the last occasion for Army National Guard divisions with their organically subordinated combat formations to serve out of the continental USA.
Since the terrorist attacks of 11th September 2001 in Washington and New York City the Army National Guard has become an important factor US home defence. More and more people were of the opinion that home defence should become the only task of the guardsmen, but the lack of operational formations in the regular army brought the 42nd Army National Guard Division the deployment in Iraq. Until October 2005 seven Army National Guard brigade combat teams (BCTs) had been in action in Iraq.
At the moment a transformation of the regular army is under way which will also have effects on the Army National Guard. The traditional structure army - corps - division - brigade - battalion is to be replaced by an organization in "task formation X” - "task formation Y” - "unit of action (UA)”, the latter - being a brigade combat team (BCT) - designed to be the primary combat element. The BCT is to be able to operate on its own and - concerning combat and logistics support - must not depend on a higher command level.
The US army command intends to increase the number of brigades from 33 to 43 up to 48 in the regular army and to 34 in the Army National Guard. While the brigades as UAs are grouped under division flags, the division status as such alters. One can foresee that the Army National Guard division will develop from its present organisation into the direction of its regular counterpart. The term Guard Division will disappear and will be replaced by the clumsier Army National Guard Unit of Employment.
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