National Guard Birthday December 13

The National Guard includes the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard. These two components have a mission to equip, train, and deploy when needed in emergencies for contingencies around the world.

The birthday of the National Guard may surprise you. The National Guard official site lists the official date as December 13, 1636.

That is no misprint. The date the Massachusetts colonial legislature authorized a consolidation of the colony’s militias into three regiments was indeed on December 13, 1636.

This date is used as part of a Defense Department tradition of using the date on the legislation officially recognizing an active or reserve component’s existence.

Later, the Militia Act of May 8, 1792 authorized military units formed before the Act to retain “customary privileges.” Over 100 years later, the Militia Act of 1903 plus the National Defense Act of 1916 with other laws, the original Militia Act has been perpetuated.