{"id":20182,"date":"2020-04-01T20:19:47","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T20:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=20182"},"modified":"2020-04-02T06:41:38","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T06:41:38","slug":"national-guard-joins-the-coronavirus-response-3-questions-answered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/national-guard-joins-the-coronavirus-response-3-questions-answered\/","title":{"rendered":"National Guard joins the coronavirus response \u2013 3 questions answered"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dwight Stirling<\/a>, University of Southern California<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

As a military organization divided into 50 distinct parts that can be commanded by either the president or state governors, the National Guard is perhaps the least understood branch of the U.S. armed forces.<\/p>\n

Despite its complexity \u2013 or perhaps because of it \u2013 the National Guard is taking the lead role<\/a> in the military\u2019s response to the coronavirus outbreak crisis.<\/p>\n

As many as 10,000<\/a> National Guard members have already been activated to help communities around the country<\/a>, with many more expecting a call-up soon. People may know, from TV ads or other brief appearances in the media, that National Guard members are part-time citizen-soldiers, but not much else.<\/p>\n

As a longtime National Guard attorney<\/a> and military law professor<\/a>, I can explain a bit more about how the National Guard works.<\/p>\n