The National Guard traces its roots to 1637 when the first state militia was formed in Massachusetts. The Utah National Guard was officially organized in 1894 but is unique in that its membership evolved from the Nauvoo Legion. Highlights of the Guard's history are noted in the following time line:
1840 - An Illinois legislative act incorporates the city of Nauvoo, Ill., and authorizes the creation of a military body or militia, which claimed membership of up to 5,000 men.
1846 - During the Mormon exodus from Illinois, 500 men, many of them former members of the Nauvoo Legion, are called into federal service and form the Mormon Battalion during the Mexican War. The battalion marches from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to San Diego without being engaged in a battle. Most members of the battalion then make their way to Utah to join Mormon settlers in 1848.
1849 - The first militia in Utah Territory is organized, taking the name of the Nau-voo Legion.
1853 - The legion is sent to protect communities on the Utah frontier against Indians in the Walker Indian War of 1853.
1857 - President James Buchanan orders federal troops to the Utah Territory. The legion holds Albert Sidney Johnson's Army at bay in Wyoming by controlling the Echo Canyon Narrows and by carrying out raids on supply trains. Johnson's Army is allowed to pass through the Salt Lake Valley and settle in Cedar Valley, establishing Camp Floyd where regular troops are quartered until the Civil War draws forces out of the territory in 1861.
1862 - During the Civil War, Territorial Gov. Frank Fuller orders the legion to protect mail and mail carriers east of Salt Lake City.
1865 - The legion again engages Indians, this time in the Black Hawk War of 1865-68.
1870 - Gov. J. Wilson Shaffer, a Civil War veteran and "northern reconstructionist," prohibits the militia from mustering, except on his order.
1887 - The legion is forced out of existence by hostile territorial officials and the Edmunds-Tucker Act.
1887-1894 - Marching organizations form outside official channels after the Nauvoo Legion is disbanded.
1894 - The Utah National Guard is organized on March 26. Gov. Caleb West calls out the Guard just weeks later to quell unrest as Charles Kelley's Industrial Army of unemployed laborers arrives in Ogden from California.
1898 - Almost 800 Utahns, most of them Guard members, volunteer for service in the Philippines during the Spanish American War. Batteries A and B of the Utah Volunteers see extensive combat in campaigns around Manila.
1903 - The Guard is activated and sent to Carbon County for two months to prevent violence during a mining strike.
1916 - President Woodrow Wilson activates the National Guard because of trouble along the Mexican border. Artillery, cavalry and hospital corps from Utah patrol the U.S.-Mexican border on either side of Nogales, Ariz.
1917 - Some Utah National Guard troops are still in federal service when Congress declares war on April 6. Nearly 1,400 Utah Guard members are involved in World War I. Guard units do not go into battle, but many members are transferred into active-duty Army units that see battle action.
1922 - The Guard is again sent to Carbon County mines to keep the peace among mine operators and striking workers.
1933 - Two National Guard riot squads are sent to quell strike problems, again in Carbon County.
1940 - The Utah State Selective Service is set up by five officers and 17 enlisted men from the Guard.
1941 - All Utah Guard units are called to active duty as fighting escalates both in Europe and in the Pacific.
1942 - World War II draws about 2,600 Guard members into action. The 204th Field Artillery Battalion fights in Europe with Patton's 3rd Army. The 115th Medical Regiment, 115th Ordinance Company, 115th Engineer Regiment, 145th, 213th, 222nd and 225th field artillery battalions, 640th and 815th tank destroyer battalions mostly saw combat in the Pacific.
1946 - The Air Guard is created in November. Veteran fighter pilots are sought to fly the new Air Guard's P-51 Mustangs.
1951 - Some 3,080 Guard members, representing all of the Air Guard and 62 percent of the Army Guard, are activated over the course of the Korean War.
1961 - The Guard mobilizes 1,600 members during the Berlin crisis. Many fill state-side positions vacated by active-duty forces sent to Germany.
1965 - Guard members are put on alert for fighting in Vietnam. Draft dodgers seeing the Guard and Reserves as a way of avoiding combat flock to the National Guard, prompting the adjutant general to announce in November the Guard has a two-year waiting list for available positions and will only take recruits with previous military service. The Air Guard flies its first volunteer mission to Vietnam in December, taking Christmas gifts to soldiers. The Air Guard flies 96 missions to Vietnam during the course of the war and handles airlift missions elsewhere in the world for the Air Force. No Army Guard units are activated, but Army Guard members volunteer for duty in Vietnam.
1983 - Engineers from the Army Guard's 1457th Engineer Battalion, on annual training at Fort Carson, Colo., are called home by Gov. Scott M. Matheson to help fight the effects of widespread flooding in Utah. The engineers build dikes, channel streams, clear mud and debris and provide emergency water supplies. The 625th Military Police Company assists local police in directing traffic around flood areas. Air and Army aviators are called on to help monitor flood conditions and landslides from the air.
1989 - The Utah Army National Guard trades its Vietnam-era Cobra attack helicopters for the Army's top-of-the-line Apaches. Guard officials say the arrival shows the Guard no longer survives on active-duty leftovers.
1990 - Utah Air Guard crews volunteer for airlift support of the U.S. military buildup in Saudi Arabia shortly after Iraq invades Kuwait. Six Utah Army Guard units are activated for duty in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Air Guard units are not activated, but volunteer crews continue providing airlift support. By the end of the war, 1706 Utah Guard members had participated either as volunteers or on active duty.
1992 - The Utah National Guard's 23rd Army Band is one of the first U.S. military organizations to visit post-Soviet Russia, accepting an invitation to perform in St. Petersburg. Utah Guard soldiers are invited into military installations no American soldier has visited before.
Sources: "History of the Utah National Guard: 1894-1954" by Richard C. Roberts, and Deseret News files.