The same ranks (enlisted/officer) and insignia are used and National Guardsmen are eligible to receive all United States military awards.

The 11th WMD CST was of the first of the now 57 teams that are spread across the United States of America that is tasked with immediate (less than four-hour) response to any unknown chemical, biological, or radiological incident.

In 1607, Captain George Popham and over a hundred colonists established a settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec near Phippsburg.

The federal government also ordered Massachusetts Governor Caleb Strong to send troops to defend Maine.

In addition, batteries and redoubts were built on the landward side of town to protect from an invasion overland.

The Portland Light Infantry Company manned the forts in the harbor from September through October, but following the failed British assaults on New York, Maryland and Louisiana launched from Canada, major offensives effectively ended altogether and no defense of southern Maine was necessary.

Formed in 1803 in Portland, the company is the longest serving unit in the Maine Army National Guard.

Due to the actions of Major General Richardson and the men of the Maine Division of Militia, the British decided that the fortifications around Portland were too strong and cancelled the attack.

Since its establishment, soldiers from the Maine Army National Guard have served in every military conflict, either in a support role, or active theater operations.

[3] According to a 2 March 2013 article in the Economist, "No state has lost more soldiers in Afghanistan, per person, than Maine—a fertile recruiting ground in every conflict since the civil war and still today home to an unusual number of veterans.