The Virginia National Guard claims heritage back to Jamestown in 1607, but the National Guard officially dates its beginning to December 13, 1636 when three permanent regiments of militia were organized in Massachusetts. The 101st Engineer Battalion, the 101st Field Artillery Regiment, the 181st Infantry Regiment, and the 182nd Infantry Regiment in the Massachusetts Army National Guard are the descendants of those three militia regiments, and thus the oldest military units in the United States.
The headquarters of the Virginia National Guard is at the Defense Supply Center in Richmond. The 29th Infantry Division is an Army National Guard headquarters, based at Fort Belvoir.1
The Virginia Air National Guard is based at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton and the State Military Reservation at Camp Pendleton in Virginia Beach. The 192nd Fighter Wing based at Sandston, Virginia was transferred to Hampton in 2007, where the Virginia Air National Guard flies F-22 fighter jets.2
The Virginia Army National Guard has bases at the Fort Pickett Maneuver Training Center and the Blackstone Army Airfield, the State Military Reservation at Camp Pendleton in Virginia Beach, and at the Army Aviation Support Facility in Sandston. The Sandston facility supports primarily helicopters.3
In Virginia, there were over 9,000 members of the National Guard in 2020:4
The National Guard is under the command of each state's governor, who can direct it to respond to natural disasters or civil unrest. The National Guard is designed to be "federalized" as the primary combat reserve of the U.S. Army and Air Force, and may be called to serve with units of the Department of Defense.
In 2021, a governor objected to a Federal mandate that members of the National Guard be vaccinated against the COVID virus. The governor claimed that he was in charge of the National Guard within his state unless units had been activated for Federal duty, but a Federal judge rejected that claim. The judge ruled that military readiness required compliance with Federal military standards so units could be activated on short notice.5