At least 17 Texas National Guard members have died while deployed on the state’s three-year-old mission to deter criminal activity at the U.S. border with Mexico, according to state military officials.
Of those, the families of four service members received the newly authorized $500,000 death benefit and six families are waiting for a determination on whether they are eligible for the money. The remaining cases were denied the benefit or the service member had no eligible relative to receive the money.
The Texas Military Department has been tightlipped about troops serving at the border, though how many troops have died in connection to the mission came out during a hearing last week of the Texas House Committee on Defense and Veterans’ Affairs. Members heard from state officials regarding implementation of a new law to provide death benefits for troops who die while on state missions.
Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2024-08-27/texas-national-guard-death-benefits-border-mission-14993111.html Source - Stars and Stripes
So, every governor is nominally the head of their state’s National Guard until and unless called up by the Federal Government. In Texas, the administration of these groups is rolled under the Texas Military Department. So, since this is an internal operation, the TMD is the one managing everything (and doing so terribly). In addition to the “normal” National Guard, subject to Federal activation, TMD also includes the “Texas State Guard” which is a couple thousand dorks and has-beens who want to pretend they’re military. Historically, this has been fairly useful because they’re some extra grunts to help out when there’s a natural disaster, and whatever real TNG officer is on-site can tell them what to do. These days, though, it seems like a perfect place for militia types to park themselves with some faint color of official sanction, but I don’t presume to know if that’s happening to any significant degree.
Thank you for the insight that’s what I feared it was.