Army and Navy Review 1915 Panama-California Edition - Balboa Park

The Coast Artillery Reserves, National Guard of California
By Major Herbert R. Fay
(Fourth Fire Command, C. A. C., N. G. C.)
The primary object in the organization and training of the local companies
of the coast artillery reserves is to provide a body of men that will
be available, in time of war, to assist the regular coast artillery corps in
manning the country’s coast defenses. The organizations are, however,
fully equipped as infantry, and their training includes such drills and exercises
and small arms practice as are necessary in that branch of the service.
But in all cases the artillery work comes first, and the infantry training
may be considered a side issue. The value of the troops to the country
as coast artillery so far outweighs their value as infantry that they would
not likely be used as infantry except in an emergency.
The training of all coast artillery reserve troops, which includes camps
of instruction and actual firing of guns of large calibre with full service
charge, is always done at the forts of the coast defenses of the city in
which the organization is stationed, which, in the case of the local companies,
is Fort Rosecrans. This policy of conducting all training at the home
station of the companies is strictly adhered to by the war department,
which has consistently refused to consider recommendations for holding
annual encampments at other cities in order to make the service more attractive
by varying the monotony of camping every year in the same spot.
The object is, of course, to familiarize the reserves with the armament and
local conditions at the forts at which they would be most quickly available
for service in case of emergency.
For duty as infantry in a local emergency the battalion would be
available almost immediately. Less than a year ago this was demonstrated
in a very efficient manner when the troops were suddenly called upon
for border service, and in less than six hours were on their way to the stations
assigned to them, fully equipped for field service and carrying five
days’ rations.
For an extended campaign in the field, however, such as the armies
of the warring European nations are conducting, the mobile forces of the
National Guard would require several weeks’ training at mobilization
camps, and any plans for their use in extensive field operations must provide
for this. No matter how well educated in the military art they may be,
and how efficient in rifle practice, this preliminary training is absolutely
necessary in order to condition them for the physical hardships that they
must of necessity endure. Being employed in a multitude of civil occupations,
which do not provide the necessary opportunities, it is unlikely that
more than a small percentage of the rank and file would be in the proper
physical condition for immediate service.