Rhode Island Army National Guard

Note – Most of the information in this section is taken from Civil and Military List of Rhode Island, 1647–1800 by Joseph Jencks Smith published in 1900.

The Rhode Island National Guard traces it origins to the earliest known colonial defensive force which was formed on May 13, 1638, and called the "Traine Band", in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. The new force was founded as, “Freemen as a militia subject to call and expected to perform certain military duties in the protection of the people.”[6]

During the Colonial era, the organization of the Rhode Island Militia was fairly simple. Each town had at least one militia company commanded by a captain or a lieutenant. In May 1673 future governor John Cranston was appointed "captain in chief of the Colony Military Force". In 1675 Cranston was promoted to major.

In 1683 the town companies were organized into two regiments – the Regiment of the Islands (i.e., Newport, Portsmouth, Jamestown and New Shoreham) and the Regiment of the Main (which covered the towns on the mainland of the colony). Each regiment originally was commanded by a major and the two majors presumably reported directly to the governor.

In 1714 the Militia of the Island was designated the 1st Regiment and the Militia of the Main Land was designated the 2nd Regiment. The 1st Regiment consisted of six companies and the 2nd Regiment had nine companies. The number of companies in each town varied with its population with Newport and Providence having three apiece. In 1719 the rank of the regimental commanders was increased to colonel.

In 1731, a regiment was formed for each of the three then existing counties Newport, Providence and Kings which were designed the 1st, 2nd and 3d regiments respectively. The Newport County regiment had six companies, Providence County had 13 companies and Kings County had 9 companies.

The Rhode Island Militia undertook its first military actions against England on July 19, 1769, when they sunk the British schooner HMS Liberty in Newport, Rhode Island. Three years later, on the night of June 10, 1772, now under Captain Abraham Whipple's command, the militia seized and burned the British schooner HMS Gaspée in Narragansett Bay. On April 22, 1775, following the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, the Rhode Island General Assembly created a 1,500 man "Army of Observation" under the command of Brigadier General Nathanael Greene and sent them to Boston to serve in the new Continental Army under General George Washington. Major General James Mitchell Varnum was also involved in the war effort. In July 1777, Captain William Barton, with a hand-picked force, kidnapped British General Richard Prescott from Newport, Rhode Island and 3,000 enemy soldiers, in order to have someone high enough to swap to get captured American General Charles Lee back from the British.[7]

Over twenty Rhode Island units had fought for independence including the First Rhode Island Continentals who stood at Yorktown for the surrender of British General Cornwallis. After the war, the militia reorganized into five brigades: the Bristol County, the Kent County, the Newport County, the Providence County, and the Washington County Brigades.

Several militia units were mobilized to defend Rhode Island against possible British attack during the War of 1812.

With the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, Rhode Island Militia units formed the ten line companies of the 1st Rhode Island Detached Militia Regiment under the command of Colonel Ambrose Burnside. Additionally, the Providence Marine Corps of Artillery was mobilized as the 1st Rhode Island Battery. Both of these units fought at the First Battle of Bull Run, under the command of Major Joseph Pope Balch, who succeeded to command after Burnside was promoted to brigadier general. The 1st Rhode Island was discharged, along with the 1st Battery, when its 90-day Federal service obligation expired on August 2, 1861.

After the Civil War, the RI Militia underwent a major re-organization which organized the units into a brigade consisting of two infantry regiments, a separate infantry battalion, an artillery battalion and a squadron of cavalry. Annual training was a six-day period initially at Oakland Beach in Warwick and later moved to Quonset Point in North Kingstown after a purpose-built camp for the Rhode Island Militia was developed there.

During the Spanish–American War, a regiment consisting of three battalions of four companies each was mobilized and called the 1st Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry. In addition to the 1st RIVI, two artillery batteries were mobilized. None of these units were sent overseas.

The greatest turning point in the history of the Rhode Island National Militia, and all other state militias, was the passage of the Militia Act of 1903. This act, also known as the Dick Act, was passed with the support of Secretary of War Elihu Root, who sought to reform the United States Army. The key provision of the Dick Act was that state militia forces would receive federal funding for paying their members as well providing equipment in exchange for adhering to the federal standards of training and organization. State militia forces adhering to federal standards were called the National Guard to distinguish them from more traditional militia forces.

The Rhode Island Militia was officially re-designated as the Rhode Island National Guard by General Order No. 9 on April 15, 1907. The two Infantry regiments of the Brigade of Rhode Island Militia were re-organized as Coast Artillery companies in order to provide a trained reserve of soldiers trained to man the five coast defense forts in Rhode Island. Other units were a Cavalry squadron and a Light Artillery Battery.

A few of the chartered units of the Rhode Island Militia chose not to convert to National Guard units. This was mostly because they would be denied the privilege of electing their own officers. These units included the Artillery Company of Newport, Bristol Train of Artillery and the Kentish Guards. These units, along with several others, today comprise the Historic Military Commands of the Rhode Island Militia.

The position of commanding general of the militia was combined with that of the state adjutant general so the position of adjutant general was transformed from having only administrative responsibilities to having command authority over the units of the National Guard.

In 1916, Light Battery "A", Rhode Island Field Artillery, was called into federal service on June 19, 1916, for duty with General John J. Pershing to fight against Pancho Villa during the Mexican Expedition. The following year, Battery "A", Rhode Island Field Artillery, expanded to form the 1st Battalion, 103d Field Artillery, an element of the 26th "Yankee" Division during World War I.

The 103d was shipped to France with the 26th Division and saw action in the Champagne-Marne, Aisne-Marne, St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne campaigns in 1918.

The coast artillery companies, which were descended from infantry units, were also mobilized in 1917 and were used to garrison Rhode Island's coast defense forts for the duration of the war.

Most Rhode Island units were demobilized in December 1918 following the signing of the Armistice with Germany on November 11.

During World War II, the majority of the Rhode Island National Guard units belonged to the 43d Infantry Division under General Douglas MacArthur for service in the Southwest Pacific, fighting in the New Guinea, Northern Solomons, and Luzon campaigns. Units which served with the 43d Infantry Division included the 103d and 169th Field Artillery battalions and the 118th Engineer Battalion. Stateside, the 243d Coast Artillery Regiment served with the Harbor Defenses of Narragansett Bay.

During the Korean War, the Rhode Island National Guard had units serving with the 43rd Infantry Division, which was mobilized for service in Germany, and the 705th Anti Aircraft Artillery Battalion which served on the island of Okinawa.

During the U.S. intervention in Vietnam, the Rhode Island National Guard had two units called into Federal service. The 107th Signal Company was activated on May 13, 1968 and served in the Republic of Vietnam until October 1969. The 115th Military Police Company was activated for duty at West Point, NY until December 1969. During this mobilization, individual soldiers from the 115th MP Company were "levied" and sent to serve in Vietnam to replace casualties.

The Great Blizzard of 1978, which occurred on February 6, 1978, caused the largest mobilization of Rhode Island Guard units since the Korean War. Guardsmen assisted stranded motorists as well as in snow removal and providing emergency transportation.

The 103rd Field Artillery Brigade was formed within the RI ARNG in 1979, and in 1984-85, consisted of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 103rd Field Artillery Regiment.[8]

During Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm the Rhode Island National Guard had four units mobilized for duty. The 143rd Airlift Wing, out of Quonset Point, flew military airlift mission from the U.S. into Europe transporting passengers and cargo. The 118th Military Police Battalion, attached to the 14th Military Police Brigade and to the 1st Infantry Division during actual combat operations in Iraq, conducted Main Supply Route Security, Battlefield Circulation Control, and temporary holding of Enemy Prisoners of War; the 119th Military Police Company oversaw three EPW (enemy prisoners of war) camps; and the 115th Military Police Company provided base security, conducted VIP escort/security missions, and custom missions.

The only extended overseas deployment of Rhode Island National Guard soldiers in this period was when the 119th Military Police Company was deployed to the Kapos Airbase in Taszar, Hungary from August 2000 to March 2001. It was a subordinate unit of the United States Army Support Element Taszar (USASET), formerly National Support Element Taszar, in support Operation Joint Forge, which was the NATO operation providing stability operations in Bosnia. Soldiers of the 119th provided convoy escorts between Taszar and NATO bases in Bosnia, main supply route patrols, law and order, force protection and various missions in support of the NATO Stabilization Force (SFOR). A small public affairs unit of the Rhode Island National Guard was also deployed to Taszar in support of SFOR in this time frame.

Rhode Island Army National Guardsmen in Fallujah, Iraq, 28 July 2003

The current War on Terror has seen the largest levels of mobilization and deployment of Rhode Island National Guard troops since the Second World War.

In early 2002 the Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 43d Military Police Brigade was mobilized and sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to provide the nucleus of the Headquarters for Joint Task Force 160 (JTF 160) in charge of detention of illegal combatants detained in operations in Afghanistan. JTF 160 was responsible for opening Camp Delta which was a detention facility which was a great improvement over Camp X-Ray where detainees were kept initially. Widely publicized and controversial interrogations of detainees were carried out by Joint Task Force 170 which was responsible for intelligence gathering at Guantanamo Bay. The 43d MP Brigade returned to Rhode Island in November 2002.

In February 2003 the 118th Military Police Battalion, along with its subordinate units the 115th and 119th Military Police companies, was mobilized and sent to Kuwait, and later Iraq. The units were overseas from April 2003 to April 2004. Two soldiers from the 115th Military Police Company were killed in action and another in an accident. The 115th MP Company received the prestigious Valorous Unit Award for its combat service in Fallujah in 2003.

In late August 2005, a composite company from the 43d Military Police Brigade was sent to New Orleans to provide security and humanitarian assistance to survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

From 2003 to 2011 every unit of the Rhode Island National Guard, with the exception of the 88th Army Band and the Joint Forces Headquarters, would be mobilized at least once for service in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

According to the RING and RIEMA (Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency) Annual Report 2008, on 6 September 2008, the Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 103rd Field Artillery Brigade and one of its component units, the 1043rd Maintenance Company, were to inactivate on 6 September 2008.[9] The other RING unit of the brigade, the 1st Battalion, 103rd Field Artillery (1/103rd FA), was to be reassigned elsewhere. The brigade was originally formed in 1979. The 1043rd Maintenance Company was merged with the 1207th Transportation Company and reorganized as the 1207th Forward Support Company (FSC) which became and integral unit of the 1/103rd FA providing maintenance and logistical support to the battalion.

National Guard perform multiple tasks at a COVID-19 test site at Rhode Island College in May 2020

During the beginning of the pandemic Governor Gina Raimondo ordered the Rhode Island National Guard and the Rhode Island State Police to stop motorists with New York license plates, as well as move door-to-door to find people who may have traveled recently from New York, to ask them to quarantine. Also anyone who had moved from New York state to Rhode Island in the past two weeks were asked to self-quarantine for 14 days in order to help stop the spread of the virus in Rhode Island.[10]

Upon EUA approval of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the Rhode Island National Guard was called upon by the Governor to develop a task force to plan for and execute the mass vaccination of the state of Rhode Island. From January through June of 2021, Task Force Vax oversaw the administration of more than 336,000 vaccines to residents of Rhode Island, accounting for roughly 30% of all vaccinations administered within the state. [11][12]