Why Was California State Guard Volunteer Firefighting Force Dismantled?
The calamitous contagion of DEI into the state’s most important public safety institutions will haunt California for decades
By Katy Grimes, January 17, 2025 3:15 am
The California State Guard is the uniformed military of the state. “The CSG is a seamless fully integrated State military operational force enhancing the civil support and federal readiness of the California Military Department and our interagency partners,” the California State Guard website says.
They are a reserve force made up of retired police, former military, retired fire fighters, and doctors, “that support the state missions and federal readiness of the Army and Air National Guard.”
“The California State Guard is made up of primarily unpaid members who train and serve the State in a military capacity. CSG members are also subject to call for Emergency State Active Duty (ESAD) by the Governor.”
Their mission:
Organize, train, equip, deploy, and employ our Airmen, Soldiers, and Sailors, to deliver integrated staff, enhanced federal readiness, civil support, and historical contribution capabilities to the California Military Department, interagency partners, and the Governor.
As a reader shared, they train with the National Guard on military bases. They guard the National Guard, Army, and Air Force bases, in uniform, with guns. “You must think of them as akin to the militias of old, combined with the volunteer fire brigades of old.”
“During WWII, this entity used to be called the Home Guard. I’m sure you’re aware of how they supplemented the other first responders during that era, which has value when the state or nation is in crisis. That’s the idea.”
“Anyway, the modern California State Guard is formal and well-trained.”
They undergo the same training as law-enforcement and active military. They observe rank, wear uniforms and follow protocols.
The State Guard includes many firefighters, cops, retired firefighters, doctors, former military, and the like.
“They are all experienced volunteers. They all work for free. Their officers have BEGGED Gavin Newsom to use them for fire breaks, to clear brush, to fill sandbags before rains, to assist the elderly who get trapped in snowstorms (like in San Bernardino last year). Use them to fight fires, to evacuate people and pets.”
We are told that the Newsom administration has refused primarily because the labor unions that protect government employees don’t like that these guys work for free.
Our source says the union has specifically asked Newsom not to use the California State Guard.
The Globe has contacted members of the California State Guard for confirmation and details, but we have not received replies back yet. We will update this article when we do.
And now, members of the California State Guard are sitting idle, while Los Angeles neighborhoods burn.
The Daily Signal has a damning report Thursday about how “a high-ranking military appointee of California Gov. Gavin Newsom diminished the state’s emergency response volunteer firefighting units, according to Maj. Gen. Jay Coggan, retired commanding general of the California State Guard.”
From their report:
“Newsom appointed Matthew Beevers to serve as adjutant general of the California Military Department in May 2023. Beevers has a history of marching in LGBTQ pride parades and was investigated for alleged antisemitism against a subordinate, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Beevers denied making the antisemitic comment.
Shortly after his appointment, Beevers decommissioned the Emergency Response Command, a highly trained joint command consisting of two volunteer units, according to Coggan.
Prior to Beevers’ decision, Emergency Response Command included Team Blaze, a firefighting detachment, and Team Shield, a security forces detachment that worked with Team Blaze on firefighting missions. Coggan, the retired commanding general of the California State Guard, started the command in February 2021.
Governor Newsom hired Christy Bouma in 2022 as Legislative Affairs Secretary, Previously, she was the California lobbyist for the firefighter’s union.
Politico reported on Bouma:
Christy Bouma has been Newsom’s chief liaison to the Legislature since 2022 and played an instrumental role that year in collecting votes for Newsom’s late — and largely successful — climate change push. She is a veteran of Sacramento politics whose former lobbying shop represented politically influential groups like firefighters.
It is difficult to calculate how much these thousands of volunteers could have done to mitigate and/or assist with the outbreaking fires. And even if they were not used to fight the fires alongside LAFD, they could have assisted with evacuations. They could have assisted in the evacuation of the elderly from nursing homes.
They could have directed traffic, kept evacuation routes clear, and even fed the firefighters.
The California State Guard Volunteer firefighters were trained and should have been a priority in fighting the LA fires.
The Daily Signal continues:
Beevers’ decision eliminated Team Blaze’s autonomy, and it was slashed in size and moved under National Guard unit Task Force Rattlesnake.
“The California State Guard was fully operational,” a senior enlisted leader who asked to remain anonymous told The Daily Signal. “Between the boats, the fire team [Team Blaze], [Team] Shield, we were able to work organically and move as a unit and be operational. And what Beevers did was cut out every piece of it that was operational and made it a support.”
The senior enlisted leader told The Daily Signal that the California Professional Firefighters Union complained to Cal Fire that it didn’t want “nonprofessional firefighters” on their fires. According to the enlisted leader, Cal Fire put pressure on Beevers, who caved because Taskforce Rattlesnake, a large program run by the California Military Department, is funded by Cal Fire.
The calamitous contagion of DEI into the state’s most important public safety institutions, from the state down to local agencies, will haunt California for decades.
“At the San Francisco pride parade June 30, 2021, then-Deputy Adjutant Gen. Beevers said: ‘The reason we’re here is to ensure that everybody knows folks in the California Military Department, California National Guard, we’re all about inclusion, about ensuring that everybody wants to serve cancer, because when we’re representative of our entire population, we’re more ready, we’re more lethal.’”
“When the history of these fires are written, people will conclude that it was 25% the weather and 75% incompetence and poor management,” former California Rep. Mike Gatto, a Democrat, told The Daily Signal.
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“At the San Francisco pride parade June 30, 2021, then-Deputy Adjutant Gen. Beevers said: ‘The reason we’re here is to ensure that everybody knows folks in the California Military Department, California National Guard, we’re all about inclusion, about ensuring that everybody wants to serve cancer [sic], because when we’re representative of our entire population, we’re more ready, we’re more lethal.’” Everybody wants to serve cancer??
What did you do with all that money Jay? Upgrade your Texas home? I know what you did to reward the fundraisers. A county supervisor and a law firm partner. You promoted them years before they earned it and gave them plum jobs. Corruption is never the answer to leadership challenges.
Anyone want details of Coggan’s unethical behavior? Email me.
The thousands of victims of the LA fires can now contemplate for the rest of their lives the fact that not only did public employee unions undermine fire safety, local and state government consistently prioritized homelessness, DEI, illegal immigrant giveaways, costly and utterly useless “climate change” programs, environmental extremism and endless woke ideology over the interests and protection of residents. Perhaps the victims will remember this the next time they cast their ballots.
Well said. For a while I was on Next Door, a corrupt censorious Facebook offshoot. I was alarmed at how clueless my neighbors are. I was kicked off by Ojai biddies who did not approve of my objections to a rogue RV encampment of 50 RVs a mile from where I live and “camiping” even closer. I remember one suggested letting them have the fairgrounds which is a prime oceanfront property. They will continue to vote the way they have been I’m afraid.
Thanks, Silas. And thanks for putting “camping” in quotes. Having received a degree in English many decades ago I understand that the way in which certain words are used can be manipulated in ways to alter perception.
Real camping is when the husband, wife, kids and dogs load their tent into their van and spend a week at the lake. For leftists “camping” is when addled drug addicts spread their shit all over the sidewalk and pass out in
between hours of semi-consciousness when they are stealing anything they can get their hands on to support their drug addiction.
Education doesn’t equal intelligence.
I agree with you Silas about Next Door! Here in Marin, it is the same. All my life known about wildlife here, what eats what, well they did not believe me that Bears were in Marin. Let alone Cougars & Bobcats, that Coyotes were okay to get close to if you have affinity to animals! Well, I left from the BS, Last year 2 Black Bear sightings.
As to the act of fire fighting, I would think that the departments would want someone to take the burden away from them to help relocate and get people out of harms way as fast as possible. Then they could do the work of fighting the fires. However, management has their noses in the air per usual. Do you ever feel like the Democrats never got out of High School? Still in the cliques?
except this article is full of lies. look up the article in the Sacramento Bee. much better written. no “our sources” or “readers say.” Active personnel refuted what Coggan says entirely. Team blaze and team shield were both absorbed into task force rattlesnake. task force rattlesnake, including members from the former teams, are already on the ground fighting the LA fires
“When the history of these fires are written, people will conclude that it was 25% the weather and 75% incompetence and poor management,” former California Rep. Mike Gatto, a Democrat, told The Daily Signal.
WRONG! The incompetence defense will not longer work. People like Mr. Gatto need to realize that the LA fires (and many, many others) are a100% planned attack that has been in the works for literally decades. All the elements of this fire and others have been in the works since the 70’s when logging was effectively banned. Other elements – defund FD’s, DEI, dumping all our water into the ocean, arson and much. much more all funded and directed by the depopulationist Left.
The common denominator of these bonehead decision is that Newsom was/is central to these decisions. It makes one wonder what force or entity directed Newsom to make all the wrong decisions about the health and safety of California. I expect that soon Newsom will be thrown overboard as the pressure continues to rise. Newsom’s says are numbered. He had a chance to do the right thing by the citizens of California and chose not to.
I was in the CSG’s ERC Team Blaze shortly after it was stood up until it was dismantled. while I can confirm some of the facts presented in this article, there are some disparities. Team Blaze never was larger than a company in size, and for the most part consisted of two to three platoons. training was very much in line with type 2 hand crews although at one point team Blaze had a strike team of type 6 engines (courtesy of CalOES) and was more or less prepared to deploy (those on the strike team received training for FFT1, D/O 1A/B, engine boss, etc. until the program folded. When deployed, CSG members were integrated directly into task force rattlesnake.
I had a lengthy interview today after I this article published with Maj. Gen. Jay Coggan, retired commanding general of the California State Guard, and will be writing a follow up article. He had plenty to say about funding, training, and recruiting. If you are available, email me at katy@californiaglobe.com – Katy
Great insight delivered by Katy Grimes… in contrast to unprofessional journalism from MSM.
It makes one wonder why Governor Newsom is busy explaining with such animated body language how he is consulting with Hawaii’s governor… Oh that section of the NBC Meet the Press Jacob Soboroff interview with Newsom January 12 has apparently been deleted. But Newsom anticipating the World Cup, Super Bowl and Olympics is organizing a Marshall Plan for LA 2.0 so rebuilding with higher quality building standards must be accelerated.
“Let’s just assess the truth. I’m not interested in who’s to blame. I wanna know what happened.”
Mismanagement is to blame, Governor, under your incompetent or intentional leadership.
Newsom claims:
“We have the Rattlesnake teams that are doing the line and working.”
“Military planes and Guards leading that operation.”
“600+ focusing on looting.”
“As many (choppers) as the traffic control can handle.”
“73 folks from Mexico will be relieving some of our hand crews.”
“Wildfire Fund”
“Insurance rates through the roof… We’ve been proactive in trying to stabilize that market.”
“10Xed the forest management investments in the state.”
These are misdirected, misused and mistrusted programs and funds that are never effectively or sufficiently executed for the benefit of the intended community. When will state administrators and local officials (including union bosses) be held accountable for their derelict mismanagement? People in North Carolina and Tennessee are still suffering from an unexpected disaster in severe winter weather while California’s mismanagement, suppression of organized volunteers and delusional excuses of a predictable catastrophe fuel the flames of contempt and conspiracies.