At the same time Missouri's National Guard announced it's adding 800 jobs over the next couple of years, it already has current members on active duty in hurricane relief or overseas.
"We have about 1,500 of our soldiers in the Middle East," Adjutant Gen. Steve Danner said last week.
"We've got the EMAC with the Virgin Islands - that's Army and Air - and then, on the Air Guard side, we're working out of the flight facilities in Savannah, Georgia, to provide aid to both the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico."
An EMAC is an emergency assistance compact between states, where the governor of one state or U.S. territory - such as the Virgin Islands - asks the governors of one or more states to assist in an emergency situation.
"Missouri was actually - if we weren't the first into the Virgin Islands - we were one of the first units in, particularly the 139th Airlift Wing flying in supplies," Danner said.
Using a rotating schedule, he explained, "We have about 60 soldiers and airmen involved on a (nearly) daily basis, flying into Savannah, Georgia, which is kind of the hub that the Air Guard has been working out of" for making relief runs to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
He added Missouri Guard officials have been taking a leadership role in organizing the rescue efforts.
Danner said Missouri generally hasn't sought EMAC assistance from other states because the disasters we've faced - including ice storms, flooding and major tornadoes - have been localized enough National Guard units from other parts of the state have provided the needed help.
"We've always been robust enough that we've been able to take care of our issues separately," he said.
And much of that self-reliance comes from having a large, per-capita Guard, Danner said - a National Guard that has grown in the number of personnel, even as the Guard nationally saw fewer total numbers over most of the last decade.
"Missouri is a very patriotic state," he noted. "I think the last thing I saw, Missouri recruiting was about 105.3 percent" of its authorized strength.
Other states haven't been as successful, Danner said, making it easier for Missouri to negotiate with those states and transfer new Guard units into Missouri.
"As we're able to recruit and we can over-drive our force structure by having a higher amount of in-strength," Danner explained, "then other states that have not been able to do the same thing, I can work with to trade units as long as my in-strength is over 100 percent."
For instance, he said: "We have picked up a truck company from Nebraska that they were not able to fill."
The expansion also can occur at the U.S. Army's request, asking the National Guard Bureau to find states that can add units that meet the regular Army's needs, he said, for Guard units to be available for regular military service.
"It's not another company that takes the place of a unit that's deployed," he said. "It's something that the Army sees, a unit that they will need in the future - because it takes about 18 months from the 'notice of sourcing' to actually be able to stand up (create) the unit and fill the unit and get the unit trained."
Still, Danner said, if Missouri experienced a major earthquake along the New Madrid fault line that goes through Southeast Missouri, he easily could see the governor asking other states for National Guard assistance.