DeSantis proposes a new civilian military force in Florida that he would control

Maj Kevin "Mac" McLaughlin - I was being sarcastic; DeSantis wants a "Civilian Military Force"! It makes it sound like he wants to build his own army; hence i.e., power hungry, but I wasn't being serious.
For the purpose he wants it for, it is good idea, considering how many hurricanes hit Florida. I was living in Pensacola when Ivan hit, it was a small, but very powerful hurricane, it completely destroyed 6000 houses in Pensacola, including my next-door neighbors. A 200-man crew would have been a big help. It just seems odd to call it a "military force". He could have called it something like; "The Florida Hurricane Helpers", or anything, why military?

It is a good idea if the budget can afford it. The reason I ask is because there are a lot of people in a frenzy because they failed to read the article(s) and note this is nothing new or malicious. Several US states have these, including the 3 of the top four states (CA, TX, and NY). One day, DeSantis will no longer be Governor and the next person will take over responsibility of this org. Since FL is the third biggest state (I'm talking about population), and are subject to annual hurricane threats, it makes absolute sense to do this. But no, people react, vs actually understanding the logic behind it. This is exactly what I saw every time Trump made a decision to do something. I hated the man's ability to speak to the people but in the end, I did appreciate many of his policies. But all these frenzied comments I've read about secret police and Nazi-like militias is ridiculous. And yet here they are within this post.

As a former FL resident and someone who will be one again in the future, I can appreciate what DeSantis is doing here. The members are all volunteers, and only get paid when active. Ironically before I saw this report, I actually spoke to a TX Guard member two days ago and he filled me in on what they do. They're all called military (in each state which has them) by the way, because they actually can be activated to provide security assistance. Originally in FL, they were used to fill in the activities usually handled by the FL National Guard while they were activated during WWII. See for yourself:

https://stateguard.cmd.ca.gov/public/
http://dmna.ny.gov/nyg/
https://mil.wa.gov/state-guard
https://tmd.texas.gov/state-guard

Maj Kevin "Mac" McLaughlin -Where did you live in Florida? I lived in Key West on a school bus on the beach in 1986, just before Key West went to the dogs with a topless bar on every corner and a row of hotels where the beach used to be. I also had a house in Pensacola from 1995 to 2015.

So, Florida is a special place for me. As a dependent from the 70s into the 80s it was officially my state of residence as my Dad established it there, making use of the lack of state income taxes (he was also raised there and graduated high school in Ft Lauderdale). I never lived there my whole childhood, but my grandfather did until he passed away in the early eighties. Still, we did get to visit him a few times.

Years later as a Captain I went to South Beach for a friend's bachelor Party where I managed to meet my now wife, who was there on an unrelated bachelorette party. Both of us loved the ocean, the beaches, and the lifestyle. We were also married in FL up in Palm Beach, and a few years later I was assigned to SOUTHCOM HQ in Doral. So we lived in Pembroke Pines during that assignment, and we enjoyed as much of it as we could. I had a boat and we'd go everywhere on mini vacations with the kids. I've since moved to San Antonio for the Air Force and retired active duty. The only reason I stayed here is because of my background in cyber operations and San Antonio is a Mecca for that. It's also cheaper than living in the DC area (which is actually officially my hometown wrt where I was born and where I spent a significant part of my childhood when not overseas). So, we look forward to going back and completely retiring in FL, but only after the kids graduate high school in the next few years.

Key West, by the way, apparently has cleaned up significantly from how you describe it. No, there aren't a whole lot of beaches, but beaches on the Keys in general aren't very vast and big anyway. The town is a venue for tourism from the cruise lines, it has a lot of shops and bars of various sizes, shapes, and quality, and it's generally a good place to go to have a fun time. While working at SOUTHCOM I'd go TDY down to JIATFS on the Naval Base and I discovered while Key West is a nice place in general, you don't want to live there. It's just too isolated and Miami is 3 hours away if you need to get back to a normal-ish civilization. Still, I love to go there and driving down the newer 7-mile bridge during a sunset is an amazing drive. The bridge also has a nice bar/grill called the Sunset Grill on the North end, which also has a dock for those who wish to tie off, eat/drink, and enjoy the sunset. Can't wait to go back.

Or get shot, stab beaten by looters.

SPC David S. …or each other…

Its Florida so anything is possible. As to the vaccine issue NG fall under state (title 32) until activated (title 10). Seems Austin could activate any NG units in Florida or other states and then those troops would all be under federal authority (title 10) and would be subject to the same current active military guidelines - get vaxxed or get kicked out. Not sure what this would do to NG troop levels in Florida but my guess is it would make a number of units non-deployable. It Austin is smart he would do this right before a major hurricane is about to make landfall in Florida.
Regardless I'm with you - this lot would be a few steps away from capture the flag.

https://www.army.mil/article/250277/army_announces_implementation_of_mandatory_vaccines_for_soldiers