The TennesseeArmy National Guard is a component of the United States Army and the United States National Guard. Nationwide, the Army National Guard comprises approximately one half of the US Army's available combat forces and approximately one third of its support organization. National coordination of various state National Guard units are maintained through the National Guard Bureau. Tennessee Army National Guard units are trained and equipped as part of the United States Army. The same ranks and insignia are used and National Guardsmen are eligible to receive all United States military awards. The Tennessee Guard also bestows a number of state awards for local services rendered in or to the state of Tennessee.
Tennessee's 45th General Assembly in 1887 established the Tennessee National Guard, as it is known today. State lawmakers set up the basic conditions under which the force would operate. Tennessee was among the first states to offer her full quota of soldiers for the Spanish–American War. The equipped Tennessee Guard units were mobilized. Four regiments were created, but only the 1st and 4th Regiments deployed overseas. In World War I, the 30th Infantry Division was deployed overseas. Tennessee personnel made up the 117th Infantry Regiment, the 114th and 115th Field Artillery, and the 114th Machine Gun Battalion. After World War One, platoons of the Tennessee National Guard participated in the Knoxville riot of 1919. When the 30th Infantry Division reorganized on 11 September 1947 it was composed of Guard units from North Carolina and Tennessee. In 1954 it was reorganized as a North‑South Carolina division with the Tennessee portion reorganized and redesignated as the 30th Armored Division. The 30th Armored Division was inactivated on 1 December 1973, with its lineage carried by the 30th Armored Brigade and the 30th Support Group, TN ARNG. The 194th Engineer Brigade was activated as an entity of the Tennessee Army National Guard on 1 November 1973. This occurred as a result of the major reorganization of the Tennessee ARNG which inactivated the 30th Armored Division. The numerical designation was derived from a former engineer unit of the Tennessee Army National Guard, the 194th Engineer Battalion, headquartered in Centerville, Tennessee. , 2009 More than 3,600 Tennessee Guardsmen responded to Operations Desert Shield and Storm. The 196th Field Artillery Brigade was one of only two Army Guard combat units to see actual combat. The Tennessee Army deployed 17 units during the conflict. A few days prior to G-Day, Tennessee’s 212th Engineer Company, attached to the 101st Airborne Division, broke through the border berm into enemy territory, building a six-lane road. The unit traversed six miles before the ground war began, becoming the first unit of the 101st into Iraq and one of the first U.S. units to breach the Iraqi defensive zones. The 30th Armored Brigade furled its colors in Jackson, Tennessee in the early 1990s. The colors were passed to the 230th Area Support Group in Dyersburg, TN. The 230th has been inactivated since its return from Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.
