PA’s National Guard Is Older Than The United States

Before the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, Pennsylvania National Guard was protecting the commonwealth, a mission they continue to this day.

The Pennsylvania National Guard is one of the few military units that can trace its roots to colonial times, including before the founding of the United States.

The 19,000-member force is made up of mostly part-time members with a small contingent serving in a full-time capacity. The force that comprises the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and the Pennsylvania Air National Guard serves around the globe and supports the nation’s military missions at armories and bases in 90 communities spread out through 52 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.

The Pennsylvania National Guard, which is based at the 17,000-acre Fort Indiantown Gap, is under the command of the governor through the state adjutant general. The most need for the state’s top executive to order the forces into action would be major storms, disaster relief, drought and civil disturbances. Locally, the Pennsylvania National Guard has been called up to assist Bristol Township police in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

The President of the United States can activate the Pennsylvania National Guard and any of the other 49 state guards to take part in federal missions.

“Pennsylvania units have taken part in every conflict America has faced, from the Revolutionary War through Iraqi Freedom, as well as ongoing peacekeeping missions in Kosovo, Bosnia and elsewhere. Since September 11, 2001, over 17,000 of our Soldiers and Airmen have deployed in support of the Global War on Terror,” according to a history of the Pennsylvania National Guard.

The Philadelphia-based 103rd Brigade Engineer Battalion is the oldest in the state and was formed in 1747. The unit is linked to an informal group of men that included Ben Franklin. The unit was stationed at Fort Mifflin and three other forts along the Delaware River during the Revolutionary War. Since that time, the 103rd Brigade Engineer Battalion has served in every conflict in American history.

While Bucks County does not have a Pennsylvania National Guard armory, many Bucks County residents serve in Pennsylvania’s high-tech military units. However, a federal military center is located along Ford Road in Bristol Township.

The new Bucks County Justice Center features the facade to the Pennsylvania National Guard’s former Company G 6th Infantry Regiment armory on Shewell Avenue in Doylestown Borough. The unit is not longer based out of Bucks County.

Members of the Pennsylvania National Guard were assigned in the early 1960s to PH-15, a facility in Bristol Township that sat off Ford Road and where the Bristol Plaza Shopping Center is located today. The base was one of 12 that circled the Philadelphia area and was armed with an arsenal of Nike Ajax surface-to-air missiles that were set up to shoot Soviet bombers from the air during a conventional war or nuclear attack. The base closed in the mid-1960s while another stayed operational and updated for a few more years in Northampton.

The Pennsylvania Air National Guard assists in lost person searches here in Pennsylvania and even aids law enforcement during drug investigations.

Most recently, members of the Pennsylvania National Guard have participated in exercises with members of the Lithuania military and assisted with the inauguration of President Donald Trump.