During the War of 1812, Western Virginia militia units took part in the Northwest campaigns, and one company of Cabell County troops fought alongside Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.

Martial law was declared for the strike zone in 1912, and miners and mine guards were sentenced to prison for various violations.

[1] In 1916, the West Virginia National Guard was activated in response to President Woodrow Wilson’s call for troops to pursue Pancho Villa on the Mexican border.

[1] One of the West Virginian National Guard's most infamous actions was when it took part in the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest labor uprising in American history.

The 150th spent World War II defending the Panama Canal while the 201st provided the first line of defense for the Aleutian Islands.

Probably the biggest change, however, was the addition of a combat fighter squadron, bringing an important aviation component to the Guard[1] Since World War II, the Army and Air National Guard has served in a number of capacities, lending aid to West Virginians during natural disasters caused by periodic flooding and to victims of the coal refuse dam break on Buffalo Creek in 1972.

[1] The West Virginia National Guard was mobilized more frequently after the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, than at any other time in its history.

Elements of the West Virginia Army and Air National Guard served in action in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

Upon release from federal service in World War Two, these two bands were consolidated into the current 249th and was stationed in Fairmont, West Virginia.

Located in Preston County, Camp Dawson is the main training site for the units of the West Virginia National Guard.

The West Virginia Guard also hosts the Center for National Response at the Memorial Tunnel in Kanawha County.

The West Virginia Air National Guard was officially federally recognized on March 7, 1947, as the 167th Fighter Squadron, based at Kanawha Airport in Charleston.

In December 1955, the unit was redesignated as the 167th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, and relocated to Eastern West Virginia Region Airport in Martinsburg, WV.

On 13 May 2005, the Department of Defense released its Base Realignment and Closure, 2005 (BRAC) report, and the 130th Airlift Wing was one of the units slated to be eventually decommissioned.

Upon learning of this, several former commanders of the 130th Airlift Wing along with members of the local Kanawha County Commission and the Yeager Airport Board of Directors formed the Keep 'Em Flying grassroots organization to try to prevent the unit from being decommissioned.

On June 13, 2005, members of the BRAC commission came to Charleston to evaluate the base and talk to General Tackett, Governor Joe Manchin, Senator Robert Byrd, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito and Col. Bill Peters, Jr., former commander of the 130th and chair for Keep 'Em Flying.

Following this visit, and taking in all the information that was presented to them during that time, the BRAC commission voted unanimously, 9–0, to keep the unit intact.