I’ve been spending a little bit of time researching possible topics for the Dead Reign forum, so I would like to bring up something that may have been overlooked in terms of the military – the State Defense Forces and Naval Militias. For those of you who don’t know, these forces are sort of like the National Guard, but instead of taking orders from the federal government, they take orders from the state governments that they fall under.
State Defense Forces used to be widespread across the country (Especially in times of war...), and at times consisted predominately of infantry and military police. However, in recent times they are shadows of their former selves. There are only 22 states (Not including Puerto Rico, which has such an organization) that have SDF organizations and nine that have Naval Militias (Six of which belong to the earlier 22), [sup][1][/sup] and the forces that remain today mostly perform in support roles, such as civil affairs, medical, engineering, communications, maintenance, and other support duties (With less preference on front-line operations such as those in earlier days).
These organizations are today little more than government-sanctioned militias with limited training and funding (They usually buy their own uniforms and equipment, which other than military uniforms the equipment is often civilian in nature.). [sup][2][/sup] Recent times have resulted in lackluster weapons training compared to the military, among other things, since these days members of the SDFs and Naval Militias have only 15 days of annual drill compared to the 38 of federal forces. Still, basic training often consists of at least four days compared to the ten weeks in the military.
[sup][3][/sup] And yet their unit sizes are usually inflated; for example, battalions would only be composed of 100 or so members, while a brigade would have only 300 members. [sup][4][/sup]But what they may very well be useful for is more important. When National Guard forces are forward-deployed, such as in times of war and more pertinently the Wave and everything that came with it, their armories and bases are left unguarded save for token forces at most (Except for those that were used as treatment and quarantine facilities after the Wave), thus they are secured by the State Defense Forces. [sup][5[/sup]] People like these know where the armories are, what’s in them, and if the local unit has a core of retired military, how to use, maintain, and repair them (With training from the retired military members of course – post-Wave if not before). They also have good medical expertise, they know how to run HAM radio stations, and often have training in search and rescue operations. [sup][6][7][8][/sup] And across the United States a limited number of State Defense Forces are trained as infantry and military police. [sup][9][/sup] And even in certain states, they had flotillas of boats in the case of the Naval Militias. [sup][10][/sup] So if elements of these organizations survived, they may become useful encounters or NPCs, or they could even fit the qualifications of Shepherds of the Damned, Survivors, or for former veterans, Soldiers. And others may somehow fit the description too.
So what do you think? Feel free to apply constructive criticism to how this may play out in a Dead Reign game.
whassupman03
[sup][1][/sup]: Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_defense_force
[sup][2][/sup]: Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_defense_force#Organization
[sup][3][/sup]: Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_defense_force#Personnel_and_training
[sup][4][/sup]: Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_defense_force#Organization
[sup][5][/sup]: Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Guard_Reserve
[sup][6][/sup]: Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Guard_Reserve#Training
[sup][7][/sup]: Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_State_Defense_Force#Duties
[sup][8][/sup]: Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_State_Guard#Duties
[sup][9][/sup]: Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_State_Guard#Organization
[sup][10][/sup]: Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Naval_Militia#History
), to ensure that any real-world information I collect is plentiful, easy to acquire, and simple to work with. Essentially, I try to add a sense of realism to how the game goes, since it is set in the modern world as it stands today.