FARMINGTON, MO (News First) – A branch of the U.S. military has a birthday this week. Randy Tolliver of Reynolds County, the junior vice commander of V.F.W. District 8 says to salute the National Guard this week.
“Three hundred eighty-eight years ago on 13 December 1636, the general court of the Massachusetts Bay colony ordered the organization of the colonies militia companies into three formal regiments, and the National Guard was born and as you know the guard continued its mission of providing units for the first-line defense of our nation to this day good lord there was a National Guard unit on Guadalcanal during World War II and as we all know they’ve deployed extensively over in recent past both to Iraq and Afghanistan and as you see on the news anytime there’s bad things happen whether it’s flooding tornadoes or whatever the governor’s calling out the guard to help,” Tolliver says.
Today, the descendants of these first regiments – the 181st Infantry, the 182nd Infantry, the 101st Field Artillery, and the 101st Engineer Battalion of the Massachusetts Army National Guard – share the distinction of being the oldest units in the U.S. military. December 13th, 1636, thus marks the beginning of the organized militia, and the birth of the National Guard’s oldest organized units is symbolic of the founding of all the state, territory, and District of Columbia militias that collectively make up today’s National Guard.
