National Guard

The National Guard was part of the reserve components of the United States Armed Forces, composed of National Guard militia units of each state, territory, and the District of Columbia, for a total of 54 separate organizations. National Guard units were under the dual control of the state and the federal government. They served as a domestic defense and disaster relief force during peacetime while during wartime, they were also deployed abroad as front-line troops alongside other Army or Air Force units.

Background

 * Main article: Sino-American War, United States of America, the collapse of America

During the food and resource shortages in the United States in the 2070s where rioting and protesting were at their peaks, the National Guard was in more demand than ever before in its history. They came to be widely used as strike breakers to suppress the widespread riots, with Guard units and regular troops deployed across the country in the worst trouble spots. Denver design documents, page 6: ''"Denver is a wreck. It was in the middle of a building boom shortly before the war, as many new jobs were opening there are the city was swollen to bursting. Most of the construction was housing for these immigrants. When the war with China started, resource rationing occurred and suddenly the construction workers didn't have anything to build with and weren't getting paid. Union riots and strikes occurred because the city couldn't pay and the federal government wouldn't step in to help. When Mexico and the Midwest started to suffer food shortages [FYI, I will be breaking up the pre-war U.S. into its thirteen distinct "zones". One of these zones is the Great Midwest Commonwealth, which was responsible for the majority of pre-war agriculture across the country. However, the U.S. as portrayed in my fakey history will be slightly more economically libertarian, so it's conceivable that the GMC actually had food to trade, but was being stingy with it/jacking up prices in the southwest. – Josh], Denver was hit hard because of its high population. Food rationing began. Food riots started because of the rationing, and some buildings were set on fire. The National Guard was called in to contain the rioting, using InstaPens (aka 'bullpens') to contain and imprison rioters. Some people deliberately attacked police and National Guard troops so they would be imprisoned and fed. Rioters, National Guard personnel who disobeyed orders, and other military folk who refused to help contain the riots were sent west and east. Then an outbreak of the New Plague hit the city. Rioters burned down large parts of the city in their fear of contamination and anger at their treatment. Many panicked and fled the city by car, clogging the freeways when they ran out of gas and trapping everyone behind them. And then the bombs fell, destroying some of what was left and killing everyone who had managed to live through everything else."'' One such deployment was following the labor strike of Poseidon Energy Plant WV-06.

After Poseidon Energy developed and installed the Poseidon Power Management System it essentially rendered the facility automated. The employees, feared being fired as so many others were, worked with the Associated Miner's Union to peacefully protest and try to renegotiate their work contract. While they're trying to guarantee their own job security, under the terms of the existing contract with Poseidon they were fired the second they joined the picket line.

While the now jobless protesters continued to gather more pressure and support, the plant's chief of security Brent Olson decided that instead of negotiation they should call in the military. Since its reactivation Energy Plant WV-06 was using newly discovered ultracite to provide power to the region, making it easy for the company to convince the government that the strike had become a matter of national security.

Since sending in soldiers to clear out what was a peaceful protest wouldn't go over well in the media, a conspiracy to remove public support for the workers began. To tarnish their image, Olson needed the protesters to become violent. The plan was for the National Guard to launch HalluciGen gas at the protesters to incite them into attacking one another, then the Guardsmen could use whatever force necessary to quell the riot.

Poseidon's first step was to forcibly detain the union sympathizing manager Renee Hargraves, so she wouldn't interfere in the operation. When the National Guard were deployed they released their gas, however it worked too well. While the gas did forcibly incite most of the protestors to violence, instead of attacking each other they charged the National Guard lines, quickly overwhelming them and storming the power plant. With the Great War occurring soon after the incident ended, those left alive had other matters to attend to.

Already deployed en masse to maintain order, on October 23, 2077 the organization had a twenty-nine minute early warning of the oncoming nuclear attack from the Department of Defense via the Defense Intelligence Agency. Although in the dark, the National Catastrophe Relief Auxiliary were also deployed en masse in accordance to their scores in preparatory drills.

After the nuclear detonations devastated the nation, all the surviving, and still active, personnel executed their respective contingency plans: surviving personnel established checkpoints, evacuated the populace, initiated cleanup operations and locked down contaminated areas as well as vital parts of integral infrastructure. They continued to operate during the coming days and weeks after the bombs fell, but factors such as radiation, lack of manpower and resources as well as the waves of violence that followed post-War led to many servicemen deserting, with those who stayed finding themselves soon overwhelmed by the collapse of society. In the weeks following the end of America, the National Guard had largely ceased to exist.

The remnants of their contingency plans still litter the landscape. Checkpoints – although ravaged by time – may still contain large stockpiles of ammunition and equipment among the remains of the guardsman; still guarded by their robotic materiel.

Organization
Created by the Militia Act of 1903, the National Guard Bureau was the federal instrument responsible for the administration of the National Guard established by the United States Congress as a joint bureau of the Department of the Army and with the National Security Act of July 26, 1947, the Department of the Air Force. As part of the militia of the United States as defined by 10 U.S.C. § 311 National Guard units were under the dual control of the state and the federal government. They operated under their respective state or territorial governor, except in the instance of Washington, D.C., where the National Guard operated under the President of the United States or his designee. Furthermore the National Guard was called up for active duty by the to help respond to domestic emergencies and disasters, such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and emergency radiation cleanup.

National Catastrophe Relief Auxiliary
The National Catastrophe Relief Auxiliary (NCRAR) units were composed of civilian medical corps charged with initial evacuations and medical triage following a nuclear disaster. These units were typically unarmed and assigned military detachments to provide security.

Bases

 * National Guard depot - Headquarters of the Columbia Commonwealth National Guard.
 * National Guard training yard - Training yard and armory for the 1st Battalion of the 101st Field Artillery Regiment, located north of Boston.
 * Spanish Fork Armory - An National Guard armory within the town is the source of high powered weapons used by the White Legs tribe, particularly their signature "storm drums", the .45 Auto submachine gun.

Technology
As a reserve military force the National Guard typically used the same materiel as the United States Army and Air Force, however due to their reserve nature and the needs of the ongoing  Sino-American War, the National Guard was primarily outfitted with surplus equipment.

Known equipment

 * Armor
 * Army fatigues
 * Combat armor including riot gear
 * Military fatigues
 * Power armor, mostly older T-45 variants (though a few elite units and high level commands within the NG had access to extremely limited numbers of T-51 models)
 * Recon armor
 * Tesla armor


 * Explosives
 * A range of hand grenades including fragmentation, pulse, and plasma grenades
 * HalluciGen gas grenades
 * Various types of land mines
 * Mini nukes
 * Plastic explosives including Cordex


 * Weapons
 * Combat knives
 * Combat shotguns
 * Experimental MIRV (At least one example was delivered to the National Guard Depot in D.C. shortly before the Great War, presumably for test & evaluation purposes.)
 * Flamers
 * Gatling lasers
 * Gauss rifles, including the M72
 * Different types of grenade launchers including the grenade machinegun
 * Incinerators
 * Wattz 2000 & AER9 laser rifles
 * Wattz 1000 & AEP7 laser pistols
 * Light support weapon
 * M199 5.56mm assault rifle (Mentioned only, not seen to date in series)
 * Miniguns
 * N99 10mm pistol
 * R91 5.56mm assault rifle
 * Military Ripper
 * Sniper rifles, including the DKS-501 (.308 variant)
 * Submachine guns, including the .45 Auto submachine gun and M3A1 "grease gun" SMG
 * Various types of Missile & rocket launchers
 * Winchester P94 plasma rifle (Also known as a plasma caster)


 * Other
 * Various models of Stealth Boy, including the RobCo 3001 and the satchel model
 * Radiation suits


 * Robots
 * Assaultron
 * Cyberdogs, including the Cyberhound Mk III military model
 * Eyebots
 * Mister Gutsies
 * Protectrons
 * Robobrains
 * Sentry bots
 * Turrets


 * Vehicles
 * Armored personnel carrier
 * Military truck
 * Main battle tank

Appearances
The National Guard is mentioned in Fallout 2, Fallout 3, the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Honest Hearts, Fallout 4, Fallout 76, its update Steel Dawn, Fallout Tactics, and the canceled Fallout 3 project Van Buren.