State Defense Forces
Homeland Security Breakfast Series

Date: Sept 28th 2007          7:30am Registration/Continental Breakfast          8:00am-9:00am Program Location: ROA Headquarters Minuteman Memorial Building               One Constitution Ave NE               Washington, DC 20002                   Directions to ROA
	US Freedom Foundation: http://www.freedomfoundation.us/

Speaker: John E. Stone, Founder and President of U.S. Freedom Foundation

Role of State Defense Forces Highlighted at DEF Breakfast Forum

As part of the DEF ongoing Homeland Security Breakfast Series,  John Stone, a Major in the Virginia Defense Force and  President of the U.S. Freedom Foundation, presented a talk on State Defense Forces September 28 at the Minuteman Memorial Building.

Stone noted the long history of State Defense Forces including WWII when there were 175,000 members of the SDF.   Today, variations of SDF exist in 24 states and number approximately 20,000 people.   Stone indicated that the best way to think of the SDF was that they are a back-up to the National Guard in that state to augment them as necessary and fill in behind them if they are deployed.    He stressed that the SDF was there to support the Guard, not to compete with it especially for resources. 

SDF around the country vary in mission and organization.   For example, in Maryland, the SDF consists of doctors.   In Virginia, it is broken into three brigades geographically spread across the state and has 26 fixed wing aircraft in its inventory.     

Stone mentioned that efforts are underway to standardize key aspects of the SDF so that military leaders and others would have a better understanding of exactly what the SDF was capable of doing.    He stated that in Virginia the budget for the SDF was typically only about $50,000 a year the SDF are not paid for their one day a month drills, or two extended weekend substitutes for the tradition two week summer camp of the RC.   Because of the great success and need for utilization of the SDF in Virginia the budget had quadrupled for them this year, but that they were still a “great buy” providing trained, ready, sets of eyes and ears, most with Federal military experience to assist in the security of their state.

Stone said the states currently possess total flexibility in building a military reserve based on local needs, and pointed to the wide diversity in existing state defense forces as examples. “Alaska provides a well-armed force, acting in backup to both the National Guard and Alaska State Police,” Stone said. “In sharp contrast, the Maryland Defense Force is almost exclusively a medical support unit and is not armed. Meanwhile, standing somewhere in the middle is the Virginia Defense Force, which is unarmed unless specifically called to arms by the Governor, but provides a full slate of military support services, including military police, communications, medical, aviation, legal, and chaplain services.”