618 State Papers and Addresses

and the men who enlist at this time of our grave emergency will be known as
the "Maryland Minute Men. "

The mission of the Maryland Minute Men is to furnish immediately, local
protection against parachute troops, saboteurs, or organized raiding parties.
It is planned that the units be confined to their own communities so that there
will be assurance at all times that every residential section of Maryland will
have protection.

No prescribed complete uniform will be required. Distinctive arm bands
and caps or other items may be furnished by the State, the County, or by the
men themselves. For the present the hard-pressed Ordinance Department of
the United States Army cannot be expected to furnish sufficient arms, am-
munition, or equipment. Hence, the volunteers, for the most part, will be ex-
pected to furnish their own weapons. For this reason, gunners (of whom
there are 60, 000 licensed in Maryland), members of Rod and Gun Clubs, of
Trap Shooting and similar organizations, will be expected to constitute a part
of this new military organization.

Officers will be drawn from the immediate area in which they are to serve.
As Army officers have pointed out to me, the familiarity of the members with
their particular locality, with the terrain and road not in the respective com-
munities, will be of great value in resisting any hostile efforts against resi-
dental areas and important public necessities.

No intensive training program will be adopted. While sufficient prepara-
tory work must be undertaken by the Minute Men, care will be taken to avoid
unnecessary demands1 upon their time. No guard duty is to be included as a
regular part of the program for the new force.

Retired officers of the regular Army, Marine Corps or State Guard will be
sought to supervise the training. The program will embrace basic field train-
ing and basic small arms instruction. The field training will include the study
of terrain from the military viewpoint, establishment and maintenance of com-
munications, practice assemblies in daylight and in dark, and other courses.
Arms instructions will cover teaching how to load and unload weapons, examina-
tion of weapons as to working order; effective firing positions, special instruc-
tions in sighting and aiming, rapid firing technique, and other duties.

Military officials, in emphasizing the value of such an organization* point
out that the familiarity which the members will enjoy with the faces, customs
and habits of their neighbors in the communty, makes them most valuable in
combating sabotage efforts. They will detect, even more quickly than a secret
service man from the outside, any strange faces in the community, or any un-
usual activities on the part of local inhabitants.

The Maryland Minute Men, armed with weapons with which they are
thoroughly familiar from long use, operating in a community in which they
are accustomed to every road and trail and stream, and aroused to fighting
pitch by the knowledge that they are serving to protect their own homes, their
family and all that they hold dear in life, will prove a staunch defense against
any enemy activity.