PUNTA GORDA, Fla.—Retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. Chris Graham has been appointed as the director of the reestablished Florida State Guard (FSG), Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a June 15 press conference at Madeira Beach.
Florida has joined 22 other states in bringing back a state-level emergency-focused civilian volunteer force. The Guard will have about 400 members; DeSantis says 1,200 people have already applied.
DeSantis said Florida has “one of the most understaffed National Guards in the United States.”
“Out of 54 states [and territories], Florida National Guard has the second-worst resident-to-guardsman ratios,” DeSantis told a room of mostly veterans.
The governor said that since 1958, the Florida National Guard has had 12,000 troops, but Florida had fewer than 5 million people at that time and the civilian-to-guard ratio was 375 residents for every guardsman….