page_title: Militia
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Militia / United States / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: The Missouri National Guard 311th Brigade Support Battalion, Co. A out of Nevada, recently went through a combative self-defense class instructed by Sgt. 1st Class Shawn Franklin and Sgt. Ryan Herda. Franklin explained that the class involves a combination of muay thai, kickboxing and wrestling. With the help of Herda, Franklin conducted his planned lessons that involved Soldiers practicing strikes, take downs, and submissions. At the end of the day, the Soldiers tested their new skills by teaming up in groups of two against Franklin. In the test, the Soldiers were required to prevent Franklin from crossing into their territory and were forced to take him down if he persisted. (Photo Spc. Sarah Vasquez)
context_page_description: A militia is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a nation, or subjects of a state, who can be called upon for military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of regular, full-time military personnel, or historically, members of a warrior nobility class. Generally unable to hold ground against regular forces, it is common for militias to be used for aiding regular troops by skirmishing, holding fortifications, or irregular warfare, instead of being used in offensive campaigns by themselves. Militia are often limited by local civilian laws to serve only in their home region, and to serve only for a limited time; this further reduces their use in long military campaigns.
  With the emergence of professional forces during the Renaissance, Western European militias wilted; later however, they would be revived as part of Florentine civic humanism, which held that professional militaries were a result of corruption, and admired the Roman model.
context_section_description: The Militia Act of 1903 divided what had been the militia into what it termed the "organized" militia, created from portions of the former state guards to become state National Guard units, and the "unorganized" militia consisting of all males from ages 17 to 45, with the exception of certain officials and others, which is codified in 10 U.S.C. § 311. Some states, such as Texas, California, and Ohio, created separate state defense forces for assistance in local emergencies. Congress later established a system of "dual enlistment" for the National Guard, so that anyone who enlisted in the National Guard also enlisted in the U.S. Army. When the U.S. Air Force was established as an independent service in 1947, the National Guard was further divided into the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard. Under this construct, the 1933 defense act's "dual enlistment" facet was further amended so that enlisted soldiers and commissioned officers in the Army National Guard were also enlisted or commissioned in the Reserve Component of the U.S. Army. Enlisted airmen and commissioned officers in the Air National Guard were also enlisted or commissioned in the Air Reserve Component (ARC) of the U.S. Air Force.
  The 20th century saw the rise of militia organizations in the United States, these private militias often have an anti-government outlook and are not under the civil authority of the states. Privately organized citizen militia-related groups blossomed in the mid-1990s. Many militia groups are based on religious or political extremism and some are regarded as hate groups.
caption: Members of the United States National Guard undergoing self-defense training. The force was created in 1903 as an organized militia.
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