I believe most military personnel would agree when I say that competition is at the heart of the American military.  We love it.  Just look at the Army-Navy football game every year and you get a slight taste of it.  Each arm of the services tries to outdo the other.  Every branch of the Army competes vigorously for bragging rights.  When I was in the Infantry, I was told that the pecking order went Special Forces, Rangers, Infantry, and then everyone else was on the bottom, looking up.  Now that I'm in the Engineers, I am told that we rule the roost because we shape the battlefield, everyone else just gives in to it.  My MP friends tell me that they're the best because, well, they're MPs and that's how they roll.  Even the different components (Active, Guard, and Reserve) all battle each other for pride of place. Long and short of it is, the whole Army is one big competition to prove who has the best unit, branch, and component.  It produces a healthy rivalry that drives unit cohesion and fosters pride of ownership.

     As a member of the National Guard, I have noticed that we often come down on the losing side of many of these fights.  It is an accepted the downside of being a force that doesn't do this job full-time.  Yet there is one aspect where we win, and win big.  And the best part is, we will always win.  Lineage.

     Unit lineage and honors descends from the British tradition of keeping the memory of regiments active even after those regiments have been disbanded or renumbered.  The oldest British unit still in existence is the Honourable Artillery Company, which dates to 1537.  Under this regimental system, units celebrate their heritage by having traditional colors, holding the battle honors of their fore bearers, and foster fierce loyalty to their regiment.  The US Army first began on a regimental system but abandoned it in the 20th century.  In 1957, the Combat Arms Regimental System, later followed by the United States Army Regimental System in 1981, was put in place to build esprit de corps and celebrate the history of the Army.  Consequently, everything these units do, both good and bad, adds to the heritage of the unit.  Thus, Soldiers are encouraged to act in accordance with their unit's history and add to the honors already accumulated.

    So how does the National Guard always win?  Well, the Active Duty component of the Army does not, despite popular belief, date back to the American Revolution.  Rather, it dates from the first organization of the US Army after independence.  The oldest unit in the Active component is the 3rd Infantry, which dates to 1784, when it was organized as the First American Regiment.  All other Active Duty units are post-1784.  The National Guard, on the other hand, gets to date its foundation back to the mustering of the first militias.  Arguably (and I say arguably because Guardsmen will always argue who came first in this), the 181st Infantry and 101st Field Artillery, both of Massachusetts, are the oldest units in the Army, dating from 1636.  However, the Virginia Army National Guard claims that it has the first units, given that the musters in Jamestown took place in 1607, a full 29 years before Plymouth.  Be that as it may, the National Guard pre-dates the Active component by more than a hundred years. 

It's nice to get a win.

Author's note:

      I experience first hand the advantages of the regimental system.  The unit I have the honor of serving with, the 262d Engineer Company, belongs to the 133rd Engineer Battalion.  The 133rd directly traces its beginnings to the first organization of the 20th Maine Regiment, of Civil War fame.  The 20th Maine held the extreme left flank of the Union Army at Gettysburg in 1863 and prevented the Confederates from outflanking the Union line.  When his men ran out of ammunition, COL Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain obeyed his orders to hold to the last man by ordering a bayonet charge and sweeping the Confederates off the hill.  The 133rd references this legacy in its motto, "To the Last Man."