South Carolina Naval Militia
The SCNM is a naval unit organized at state level and primarily composed of Navy and Marine Corps reservists who serve simultaneously as federal and state level reservists.[1] The SCNM can be deployed by the Governor of South Carolina to assist in emergency response or in homeland security operations.Prior to the creation of the federal military reserves, the United States maintained a small professional military which was augmented by state militias in times of war.Prior to the reestablishment of the SCNM, the United States Coast Guard commander in Charleston, South Carolina maintained a unit of volunteers organized as a para-naval militia called the Volunteer Port Security Force, which consisted of 40-50 nonmilitary boats and their owners who agreed to report suspicious behavior to the Coast Guard.[3] In 2003, the South Carolina General Assembly passed the South Carolina Maritime Security Act which officially reestablished the South Carolina Naval Militia and requires the Maritime Security Commission, a committee created by the act, to actively maintain and facilitate the activities of the naval militia in order to further homeland security operations.