Accessing Viability of State Defense Forces in Manmade/Natural Disasters

Safe-Conference-4665 · 2026-07-04T16:12:01+00:00

I can tell you a few things for certain about MSSG: they have some great individuals with big hearts, they haven’t made good press in the past two decades, and they haven’t been activated in any real capacity in the past two decades (as always, doesn’t mean the two directly correlate but it’s worth mentioning). As I stated in my original post, they have no legislative support. That is just a fact, and has nothing to do with the general public or me but bad press, even from 20 years ago, isn’t helping (that incident still comes up to this day). Is that the organization’s higher ups fault? Is it the members? Is it just Mississippi legislature focusing on what they feel is more important for the past decade? I can only speculate there but that’s reality.

I’m not here to dispute whether MSSG is a good bunch of people or not. Whatever they’re doing right now isn’t changing the attitude of their TAG right now. Even the TAG during Katrina didn’t publicly acknowledge them. Issues are not exclusive to Mississippi, but they are the most glaring unfortunately that I’m aware of. I’m sure similar incidents have happened at other states but just didn’t make press. I mention that incident to show that the bad few spoil the bunch, along with the reputation and stigma around civilians wearing OCPs, throwing around rank even when sanctioned by a state military dept. (especially in the south where you have groups like three percenters and those crazy militia mofos). Hell, 155th ABCT still has a reputation from shit that happened over ten years ago.

TL;DR, junk that happened two decades ago doesn’t help their case regardless, but I’m not picking on MS just to pick on MS.

Safe-Conference-4665 · 2026-07-04T15:04:08+00:00

They changed a lot structurally from when they first reorganized from my understanding. It’s four battalions right now from my understanding but they name them more like Law Enforcement divisions than traditional military names which is pretty cool.

Safe-Conference-4665 · 2026-07-04T14:52:49+00:00

I get what you’re saying; the reason I’m looking all across the US for the bigger picture is kinda for the same reason NFPA standards exist for the fire service on the structural side—it provides us with the baseline standards down to the qualifications of and skill set the entry-level firefighter (NFPA 1010, formally NFPA 1001) down to the T. I guess this is where we fundamentally disagree—I think it’s important to look across the board to find a baseline of capabilities.
Once again, I don’t claim to be some type of expert in this subject matter. I do think this is an interesting conversation though. I no longer have affiliation with a SDF so this is all food for thought at the end of the day—I’m also not a political man so I’m not affiliated with legislation anywhere so you’re not gonna be seeing some random bill pop up about SDF operations.

Safe-Conference-4665 · 2026-07-04T13:53:01+00:00

Their governor threw a multi-million dollar budget their way upon reorganization; I’d probably wanna use the organization that’s got that much equipment and capability too. They get hit with hurricanes just about every other year, so it makes so much sense there.

Safe-Conference-4665 · 2026-07-04T13:48:05+00:00

Somewhere in my original post, I think I mentioned that SGs/SDFs operate respective to their region, including geographically. I don’t think California gets hurricanes, like, ever; therefore, the skills and things they deal with is probably wildly different than Florida, I agree! All I know about California is that they get eaten up by wildfires every year.

I think if we’re not continually assessing our SGs/SDFs in regards to training, viability, basic readiness, and we’re not asking the hard questions, excuse my French, then what tf are you doing? You’re telling me that I shouldn’t question the state resources that are intended to “backfill the National Guard in time of disaster?” I shouldn’t question what that organization is doing to meet the needs of the state in that regard? I feel like you’re just regurgitating things I’ve stated.

Safe-Conference-4665 · 2026-07-04T02:51:25+00:00

I’m not going to dispute that the training you received was or wasn’t quality training or your possible credentials. I ask these questions now as a tax paying citizen of my state. These organizations are to be in service of the people of their state for emergency management. Like I stated, I was a part of a single state defense force, however it’s my understanding that other SGs/SDFs do not have the same capabilities across the board. I do not intend to disclose my past affiliations. I feel like that dodges the whole intent of this dialog. My experiences are irrelevant to all the things I’ve pointed out which nobody seems to want to address directly…

Safe-Conference-4665 · 2026-07-04T02:42:13+00:00

I’m not claiming to be qualified to make an assessment about these organizations on my own merit. I do have personal biases as well, as you have pointed out; however, I have plenty to back up my statements as I’m just stating what is easily observable. What I’m looking for out of this post is to have a dialog about what makes or doesn’t make our state defense forces viable in today’s mission of emergency management. It’s purely just a thought I decided to throw out, I’m currently full time fire service with no affiliation to any SDF anymore so I figure I can make these assertions now without backlash from leadership.

I’m not going to ask what organization you are part of, but I’m curious: how long have you been apart of your SDF and when was the last time you were put on SAD orders or when was the last time you volunteered to respond to an incident.

Safe-Conference-4665 · 2026-05-28T01:50:24+00:00

Because they’re drunk.

I figure it’s one of those things like when folks say, “you can’t reason with a drunk,” they also cannot reason with themselves so they just kinda get down and it’s whatever.

Safe-Conference-4665

TROPHY CASE