To celebrate our fellowship and our mission, the 1/144 Field Artillery Battalion, California National Guard veterans held a reunion BBQ at Bishop Diego High School on 27 August 2022. It marked the 105th anniversary of the founding of the first local National Guard unit in Santa Barbara in 1917.
The Army National Guard predates the founding of the nation, as the Massachusetts Bay Colony mustered the first regiments in 1636 in Salem. Militias formed the bulk of the nation’s forces in the Revolution. Despite uneven performance on the battlefield, the Founding Fathers preferred them as they believed large standing armies inimicable to a republic’s long-term prosperity.
The California Militia formed in 1849 as territorial militias. During the Civil War, California militias actively supported both sides with recruits sent east and various operations in California and the west. They also jockeyed for ultimate control of California, with Unionists ultimately winning. The modern California National Guard dates from the Militia Act of 1903 in reaction to national struggles mustering troops for the Spanish–American War. The act codified regulations for all American militias, standardizing equipment and training in line with Regular Army units as well as how they would be federalized for national service.