The 269th Military Police Company based in Murfreesboro heads toward a structure in Northern Iraq during a deployment in 2009.
Aug. 17, 1774: First known muster of Tennessee Militiaman.
1776: The region was annexed by North Carolina, thus the Tennesseans technically became members of the North Carolina militia.
1780: Tennesseans saw their first major action against the British. .
June 1, 1796: Tennessee became the 16th state admitted into the Union, and the Tennessee militia "officially" was born under the governorship of John Sevier.
Fall 1812: Tennessee asked to send 1,500 soldiers to New Orleans to help defend the area against Great Britain, but ultimately saw no action.
Aug. 30, 1813: Creek warriors known as "Red Sticks" attacked and massacred over 400 settlers, many women and children, at Fort Mims near Mobile, Ala. The Tennessee General Assembly immediately authorized the governor to raise 3,500 militiamen to avenge the attack
, including famous Tennesseans like Pvt. David Crockett and Lt. Sam Houston.
Jan. 8, 1815: Jackson's troops defeat a veteran British army at the Battle of New Orleans.
1830s: Tennesseans strongly supported and assisted in Texas independence. Crockett and his band of Tennessee Mounted Volunteers died defending the Alamo in 1836.
1846: War with Mexico breaks out. 30,000 Tennesseans offered their services, some towns forming entire companies on the spot. Some volunteers even tried to purchase slots in militia companies already formed to ensure that they would be able to join in the fight. . This fervent response would forever cement Tennessee's reputation as the Volunteer State.
January 1847: All three Tennessee Regiments were formed into a brigade commanded by Maj. Gen. Gideon Pillow and put under the command of Gen. Winfield Scott. They would see combat in Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo and other battles in the Mexico City campaign. During an assault on Fort Teneria, the 1st Tennessee earned the nickname, "Bloody First."
1861: Civil War begins. Tennessee was divided over the secession issue, but in April 1861, the General Assembly passed an act allowing the governor to raise 55,000 volunteers, 25,000 which should be armed and prepared for service immediately. Around the state, men rapidly organized into companies and regiments. On June 8, 1861, Tennessee voted to secede from the union, the last state to do so. In July, the militiamen of the Provincial Army of Tennessee, were transferred to the Confederate government, which would be considered the "largest and best organized Southern force."
1867-1869: State militia mobilized to monitor election sites against possible hostilities from the Ku Klux Klan. Tennessee also created 12 African-American militia companies, the first of such companies in the state.
1887: Tennessee's 45th General Assembly established the Tennessee National Guard as it is known today. Tennessee's First Brigade was composed of three infantry regiments: one from East, Middle and West Tennessee.
1898: Tennessee was among the first states to offer her full quota of soldiers to the Spanish-American War, but only the 1st and 4th Regiments deployed overseas. Over 4,300 soldiers volunteered to fight in the war including 17 Tennesseans that joined Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. The 1st Regiment would fight in the Philippines until 1901 and was one of the most honored Spanish-American War volunteer regiments and the last to leave federal service.
April 12, 1917: Elements of the Tennessee Guard were put on active duty as America formally entered World War I.
Aug. 5, 1917: President Woodrow Wilson drafted all National Guard units into the federal army.
1923: 117th Infantry and 115th Artillery receive permanent unit designations with the state. Tennessee's first aircraft squadron, the 105th Air Observation Squadron, was also organized.
World War II: The 30th Infantry Division serves in Europe with distinction. The regiment received two presidential unit citations. The German High Command regarded the 30th as "Roosevelt's Shock Troops."
Korean War: Tennessee mobilized 11 units, with four seeing combat in Korea. The 196th Field Artillery Battalion served in theater, receiving a PUC for helping to repulse the massive Chinese invasion in 1951.
1954: Tennessee organized the 30th Armored "Volunteers" Division. It would be the primary unit in the state until 1973 and one of its most celebrated. Guardsmen were called upon for the first time in history to enforce school integration in Clinton, Tenn., in September 1956 against a Ku Klux Klan rally.
1968: Units from the 30th Armored Division deployed to quell riots in Memphis and Nashville after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.
Vietnam: No units from Tennessee were mobilized for Vietnam, but hundreds of Guardsmen volunteered to serve with the active army.
1975: Military policemen responded to an inmate revolt over living conditions at the Tennessee State Penitentiary, often called the "Pork Chop" riot.
1991: More than 3,600 Tennessee Guardsmen responded to Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
1996: Tennessee Guardsmen provide security at the Ocoee River in East Tennessee during the 1996 Olympics.
2001: Immediately after Sept. 11, soldiers and airmen secured local armories, patrolled the state capitol, and secured six major airports throughout the state. The 268th Military Police Company secured the Milan Ammunition Plant as well as other sensitive sites.
March 2003: Tennesseans were some of the first units to cross into Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
2004: The 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment was alerted and deployed to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom III. Almost 4,000 Guardsmen would deploy, making it the largest single mobilization of Tennessee Soldiers since World War II.
2005: 1,200 Tennessee Guardsmen respond in the first days of Hurricane Katrina.
At the close of December 2011, nearly 21,000 Tennessee Guardsmen had deployed for the War on Terror.
Source: Capt. Darrin Haas, Tennessee National Guard historian and Platoon Trainer for Officer Candidate School at the 117th Regimental Training Institute in Smyrna.