Nevada National Guard

This 1906 photo shows Nevada Gov. John Sparks, center, with the Nevada Guard's command staff posing for a photo during Labor Day. The Nevada National Guard's units disbanded in May of that year largely because pro-union sentiment in Nevada viewed the Guard as an arm of the state against workers.

From 1880 to 1900, the Comstock mines dried up and the Silver State’s population plummeted. During this time, the Nevada Guard struggled to meet national standards suggested by larger states. Still, in 1892, with fewer than 50,000 people living in the state — the smallest in the nation by population, but fifth largest in area — Nevada Guardsmen held their first summer encampment in Carson City. Volunteer soldiers, many of them miners, came from as far away as Tuscarora in Elko County and Yerington in the Mason Valley. The encampment included rifle practice and a 3 a.m. “sham” attack. Nevada’s budget constraints only allowed guardsmen to receive $10 per encampment, compared to $33 per encampment for soldiers in New York. In 1896, Carson City Guard, Company F, earned the national marksmanship championship with Springfield rifles, even though “companies in the eastern States have been prone to deny this” and “did not believe the published records of the Carson Company to be correct.” After President William McKinley called on the states during the Spanish-American War, nearly every Nevada Guard unit disbanded as military men left for war.[7]

In 1906, the final two units of infantry in the Nevada Guard disbanded after a federal inspector questioned their loyalty to the state. According to the federal officer from the Presidio in California: “The replies of both were that not a man could be relied upon to obey the order of the Governor, and I wish to add that in my opinion both captains and all company officers, as well as the enlisted men, would not only refuse to obey orders of the Governor, but would be arrayed on the other side [of labor violence].”[8]

The Nevada Guard’s disbandment occurred simultaneously with the rise of labor radicalism, especially in Goldfield, Nevada, the state’s population center at the time, which included the Industrial Workers of the World. Even after the fall of Goldfield in the 1910s, labor groups repeatedly blocked the reorganization of the National Guard at the state legislature. Efforts stalled during World War I as most able-bodied men entered conscription instead of the state Guard.

In 1927, Nevada Governor Fred Balzar named Mineral County District Attorney Jay White state adjutant general, with the goal of reorganization. In 1928, the 40th Division established the 40th Military Police Company in Reno with 60 soldiers. White, who enthusiastically embraced his role as adjutant general, remained Nevada’s adjutant general even after Balzar’s death in 1934. He helped reorganize the Nevada National Guard again after the state force was federalized during World War II. During the war, the Nevada Guard deployed around the world and saw action in the Pacific Theater.[9]

The Nevada Air Guard was created in 1948 when the 192nd Fighter Squadron received federal recognition flying P-51 Mustang aircraft.

As the Iron Curtain fell across Eastern Europe with the beginning of the Cold War, and a hot war occurred in Korea (1950–53), major federal funds poured into the state for the reorganization of the Nevada National Guard. In 1948, the Nevada Army Guard reorganized with the 421st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion. With the creation of the U.S. Air Force in 1947, Nevada received an Air National Guard unit with the 192nd Fighter Squadron, established in 1948. The 192nd operated out of the old Army Air Base north of Reno in present-day Stead. In 1951, the 192nd entered a 21-month deployment flying P-51 Mustang aircraft in the Korean War. During the war, the Nevada Air Guard suffered its only combat fatality in its history: Lt. Frank Salazar. After the war, the Nevada Air Guard entered a lease agreement with the city of Reno for land south of the airport, at Hubbard Field, present-day Reno-Tahoe International Airport. The 152nd Airlift Wing remains there today. In the 1950s, the Nevada Air Guard received massive sums of federal support, along with the Nevada Army Guard, for base improvements and the construction of armories. This was also true for other western states, especially California, as the federal government with its burgeoning defense establishments during the Cold War emerged as a major economic multiplier in the growth of the American West during the 20th century.[10]

In 1967, the Nevada legislature re-wrote the state’s militia code, which provided for the expansion of the state’s military department, including a code of military justice and the creation of a full-time adjutant general position.[11] In 1968, the Nevada Army Guard changed its mission from artillery to armored cavalry, and it also acquired its first helicopter (OH23B), the initial step toward bringing Army aviation assets to the state. Also that year, the Nevada Air Guard answered President Lyndon B. Johnson’s call-up in response to North Korea’s capture of the USS Pueblo, a naval intelligence vessel. While no direct military retaliation was initiated, more than 600 Nevada Air Guardsmen were activated on one-day notice for service in South Korea and various places around the United States.[12]

A Nevada Army National Guard UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter operates during a firefighting training in northern California in 2015.

The Nevada Air and Army Guard garnered numerous trophies for excellence in the late 1970s and 1980s. The Nevada Air Guard won the aerial reconnaissance championship, Photo Finish, against international competition in 1978 and Reconnaissance Air Meet championships in 1986 and 1990. Airman Magazine noted the “High Rollers of Reno” are the “best at what they do” — aerial reconnaissance. In 1980, the Nevada Army Guard’s 3rd Squadron, 116th Armored Cavalry re-designated as the 1st Squadron, 221st Cavalry. The 221st won two Goodrich Riding Trophies, 1984 and 1986, a highly-coveted armor trophy. In 1985, it gained national attention after it completed a 135-mile tank march from southern Nevada to Fort Irwin, California, commonly referred to as the “Death March,” with 71 tracked vehicles and 109 wheeled vehicles. The convoy stretched as long as 25 miles and included 420 soldiers. In 1986, the Nevada Army National Guard gained its first aviation battalion, the 1st Battalion, 113th Aviation, which operated CH-54 Skycranes, eventually receiving UH-60 Blackhawks and CH-47 Chinooks in the 1990s.

After the Vietnam War and the draft, the Department of Defense adopted its total force concept, using the National Guard of the states more during federal missions. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Nevada Army National Guard expanded with various support missions, assisting the warfighter overseas and citizens at home during natural disaster.[13] Both the Nevada Army and Air Guard deployed units during Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield. In 1991, the then-152nd Reconnaissance Group was among the first aircrew to fly missions over Kuwait and Iraq. They dodged anti-aircraft artillery, obtained photos of burning wellheads, spotted strategic targets and conducted assessments on the first morning of the war. Thirteen airmen of the unit received the Distinguished Flying Cross. Additionally, the 72nd Military Police deployed to Saudi Arabia where they operated and maintained prisoner of war camps. In 1995, the U.S. Air Force moved away from manned reconnaissance, and the 152nd re-designated as the 152nd Airlift Wing operating C-130 aircraft.[14]

1st Sgt. Elbie Doege, 485th Military Police Company, front right, embraces Col. Eric Wishart during the unit’s deployment return from Kuwait July 6, 2017 at Atlantic Aviation in Reno.

In the Post-9/11 Era, the Nevada Air and Army Guard entered an unprecedented operations tempo. This deployment cycle has become the standard for the Nevada National Guard, and it has come with a cost. During the 1864th Transportation Company’s deployment to Iraq in 2005, Spc. Anthony Cometa, of Las Vegas, was manning a HMMWV machine gun turret when his vehicle lost control and flipped. One day after his 21st birthday, Cometa died in the accident. Two months after Cometa's death, a rocket-propelled grenade struck the fuel tank of a Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan, killing Chief Warrant Officer 3 John M. Flynn, of Sparks, and Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart, of Fernley. Also killed in the crash were two Oregon Army National Guardsman and an active duty Soldier. In 2013, the Nevada Guard named the field maintenance complex at the Las Vegas Readiness Center after Cometa. Additionally, a memorial to the five Army aircrew killed stands at the Army Aviation Support Facility in Stead, Nevada.[15]

Additionally, the Nevada Guard’s role in emergency response in the U.S. increased. In 2016, the 152nd Airlift Wing was named the newest unit to operate the U.S. Forest Service’s Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System, or MAFFS. One of four military C-130 units nationwide operating the mission, the 152nd can be called to fight wildland fires around the nation. In 2017, the Nevada Army Guard and Air Guard responded to more domestic response activations than any year in its history, including floods in northern Nevada and support of hurricane response efforts in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.[16]