this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2026
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The national guard is the military, they have military gear. Just straight up, access to all the military gear that exists. They have the same jobs, and training and same equipment as the active duty counterpart.
The national guard is under the control of the states, excepting presidents commandeering them in an emergency. They also are like weekend warriors, people that live in the state and are like part time. The military is people that are on full time terms, outside the areas they live in, and with vastly more advanced gear. But yeah they both are military but not the same at all.
Active duty marines or army in the streets is quite different than national guard.
This is the Army National Guard, they are by design held to the same training duty standards as their active duty counterpart. If we were talking about the army reserves I could see your point, as they don’t have combat roles, but the National Guard does. There is no marine corp national guard, there is however a marine reserve, which is again a different thing still than the national guard.
They have the same uniforms, the same service name tapes, use the same equipment, basic and advanced training, deploy to the same areas overseas to do the same jobs. They are also subject to UCMJ when in uniform. Can go even go active duty upon to request.
It’s literally not that different
I might be mistaken to some degree I don't know that much of the armed forces, I was just referring to the national guard that every state has, at the control of the governor. Idk about any army national guard or reserve specifically. But the National Guard's that State's control while they do have heavy gear, including tanks and armoured vehicles, and I know there are even air national guards and such, I am pretty sure don't keep as much gear as the army/marines/navy proper does.
Like the advanced bombers/fighters, drones including predators, loitering munitions, those ray guns and experimental stuff, white phosphourous and all sorts of nasty bombs and anti personnel stuff, guided missiles, chemical and biological weapons, and so forth. Not to the same degree. They exist more to back up the State domestically but I'm not sure the exact relations with the feds and whatever else, only that the feds can seize control, and that the democrats helped pass a law in 2009 or so making it easier for the president to seize control of a state's national guard if they declare a national emergency, a self declared unqualified designation.
Also I know those reservists and others that usually don't serve overseas were often grabbed by the Bush administration and sent to Iraq, often driving trucks on airport road and such, the most dangerous job with all the ied's.
Reservists have been and continue to serve overseas since WW1. I can really only speak to the Marines, but they did generally the same job as active counterparts. There was a hiccup when 3/25 went and got hit hard, and leadership took a second look at how to deploy reserve units, reason being when a reserve unit takes casualties, they're all confined to a geographic area, so you'll have states and towns getting multiple casualties, versus active units, which have dudes from all over the place.
We trained the same as active units, just obviously with less frequency. We were held to the exact same standards. When you went to corporals course, or sergeants course, or squad leaders course, it was active and reserve all together.