RESOLUTION

 SUPPORT FOR REGULATED STATE DEFENSE FORCES

WHEREAS, The Military Order of the World Wars, as an organization composed of commissioned officers from the uniformed services, supports our national defense and homeland security needs in peacetime and wartime; and

WHEREAS, the Congress of the United States in 32 U.S.C. 109 has recognized the need for states to organize and maintain regulated State Defense Forces, in addition to the National Guard, to maintain public safety and order, to combat and respond to terrorism, and to perform state-wide missions when the National Guard is federalized or mobilized; and

WHEREAS, currently 24 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico maintain State Defense Forces; now

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that The Military Order of the World Wars at its Annual Convention in Burlingame , California , August 2-7, 2005, support the legislation before the Congress that State Defense Forces can fully support Homeland Security and assist states wherever their National Guard forces have been federalized during the Global War on Terrorism.