The Naval Militia: A Neglected Asset?

[Pages:74]CIM D 0015586.A1/ Final July 2007

The N aval M ilitia: A N eglected Asset?

Albert A. Nofi

4825 M ark Center D ri ve ? Al exandri a, Vi rgi ni a 22311-1850

Approved for distribution:

July 2007

Dr. Barry L. Reed Tactical Naval Issues Operations Evaluation Group

This document represents the best opinion of CNA at the time of issue. It does not necessarily represent the opinion of the Department of the Navy.

Approved for Public Release. Distribution Unlimited. Specific authority: N00014-05-D-0500. Copies of this document can be obtained through the Defense Technical Information Center at dtic.mil or contact CNA Document Control and Distribution Section at 703-824-2123.

Copyright ? 2007 The CNA Corporation

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

The current state of the NM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Current NM mission areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 State-specific mission areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 New York . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 South Carolin a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Ohio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Texas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Training the NM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Homelan d Protection : An emergin g mission for th e NM . 10 Wh at h as th e NM been doin g lately? . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Th e TWA Fligh t 800 Recovery Mission . . . . . . . . 12 Th e terrorist attack on th e World Trade Cen ter . . . 14 Oth er recen t NM activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

The NM: Where can it go from here? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 H ow does th e State ben efit from th e NM? . . . . . . . . . 21 H ow does th e n aval service ben efit from th e NM? . . . . . 25 Reten tion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Improved train in g an d skills main ten an ce . . . . . . 27 Support of th e n aval role in h omelan d defen se an d military assistan ce to th e civil auth ority. . . . . . . . 28 In creased public exposure of an d support for th e n aval service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 H ow does th e reservist ben efit from th e NM? . . . . . . . 30 H ow does th e n ation ben efit from th e NM? . . . . . . . . 30

Some potential objections to having a NM . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 H ow sh ould th e NM be reactivated? . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Activatin g a NM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

i

New Jersey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Wiscon sin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 South Carolin a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Some further thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Distribution list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

ii

I ntroduction

Th e Naval Militia ( NM) is th e most obscure compon ent of th e armed forces an d may be th e most overlooked organ ization in the military h istor y of th e Un ited States. It is th e m ar itim e an alogu e of th e Nation al Guard ( NG) an d is a force with a dual Federal-State juridical iden tity, h avin g both Federal an d State ser vice obligation s. It h as existed for well over a cen tury, an d for two gen eration s was th e prin cipal Reserve compon en t of th e Un ited States Navy. Today it n umbers 6,500 men an d women .

Naval Militiamen h ave ser ved in th eir Federal capacity on active duty durin g every war sin ce 1898, an d were called up for several major crises of th e Cold War. In addition , th ey h ave per formed State mission s on n umerous occasion s--in recen t times, most n otably wh en New York an d New Jersey Naval Militiamen were called to protracted tours of State active duty in con sequen ce of th e terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Som e of th ese person n el later saw ser vice in Afgh an istan an d Iraq on Federal active duty.1 Yet today th e NM is so obscure th at most defen se specialists an d even man y sen ior n aval person n el are wh olly un aware of its existen ce. Despite th is obscurity, th e NM still exists in a h an dful of States an d h as been experien ced a modest revival over th e past few years, suggestin g th at it h as th e poten tial to again become an importan t resource for th e n aval service an d th e States.

Federal legislation regardin g th e NM is foun d in U.S. Code, Title 10, Armed Forces: 10 USC 261, 10 USC 311, an d 10 USC 7851-7854.2 With in each State, th e legal auth ority for the existen ce of th e NM is em bod ied in th e State con stitu tion an d en ablin g legislation . For example, in th e case of New York, th is is foun d in Article XII of th e

1. "From th e Field," NYNM News, Jul-Sep 2002, p. 7; "NYNM Seabee Serves at Camp X-Ray," NYNM News, Jul-Sep 2002, pp. 13-14.

2. See h ttp:/ / uscode. title_10.h tm.

1

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download