09/16/2026
September 16, 1940:
More than 3,000 Soldiers of the Georgia National Guard entered federal service with the US Army. They were among the more than 60,000 Guardsmen from 26 states who were activated by order of President Franklin Roosevelt.
The Georgia National Guard Soldiers would spend approximately one week at home station before mobilizing to camps of instruction. Georgia units of the 30th Division would arrive at Camp Jackson in several waves beginning with the Springfield-based 30th MP Company and Atlanta’s Company H, 105th Medical Regiment, on September 20. The 121st Infantry Regiment would follow on September 23 and the 118th Field Artillery would join them September 25. At the time, no one knew how long the Soldiers would be gone. Orders were for one year, but with the situation growing grimmer in Europe, one year seemed optimistic.
Georgia's Citizen-Soldiers were destined to serve in every theater of the war. Seven Georgia National Guard battalions would roll ashore on the beaches of Normandy while nearly as many served in the Pacific Theater from New Guinea to Guadalcanal and on to Okinawa. Georgia's first air unit, the 128th Observation Squadron began service conducting antisubmarine patrols of the shores of the southeast United States and ended the war flying B-17 bombers over Europe.
Of the Georgia National Guard Soldiers who entered federal service September 16, 1940, many would volunteer for special duty in the airborne and air corps. Soldiers leapt into the skies over Normandy on D-Day and piloted bomber and fighter aircraft over the Atlantic and Pacific. Others emplaced railroad tracks across North Africa and landed tanks on Makin Atoll.
The majority of those Citizen-Soldiers called to active service on September 16, 1940, would spend the next five years in active service. Of the 5,195 Georgia Guard Soldiers who ultimately mobilized, nearly 200 were killed in action.
Linwood Martin was an 18-year-old employee at his father’s gas station in Jackson, Ga. when he was interviewed by the Atlanta Constitution the day of his activation with the local Jackson Ri**es, Company A, 121st Infantry Regiment. Linwood expressed optimism that he would make more money in the Army while his brother could fill in for him at home. Martin mobilized with the 121st Infantry to Fort Jackson. Shortly after arrival, Martin transferred to Company L, 134th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division. He was killed in action November 17, 1944, and rests in Oak Hill Cemetery, Griffin, Ga.
