Executive Order  No. 59: (1st Series) Allowing persons aged 17 to join state guards; statutory minimum age of 18 suspended

WHEREAS, the Massachusetts State Guard has been established pursuant to authority granted by the Congress of the United States by U.S.C., 1940 Edition, Tit. 32, Section 194, as amended; and

WHEREAS, the maintenance of a numerically strong, well-trained and equipped State Guard is essential to the preservation of the internal security of the Commonwealth; and

WHEREAS, enlistments in the State Guard are restricted by the pro- visions of Acts of 1943, chapter 35, section 7, to volunteers eighteen years of age or older; and

WHEREAS, the requirements of the armed forces of the United States and of industries engaged in the production of war material have made it increasingly difficult to recruit volunteers eighteen years of age or older for enlistment in the State Guard in sufficient numbers for its maintenance at a satisfactory numerical strength; and

WHEREAS, reduction of the minimum age for enlistment in the State Guard from eighteen years to seventeen years will both aid in procuring enlistments therein and will provide valuable physical and military training for the youth of the Commonwealth:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, LEVERETT SALTONSTALL, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, acting under the provisions of Acts of 1941, chapter 719, as amended by Acts of 1943, chapter 3, Acts of 1942, chapter 13, sections 2 and 3, and all other authority vested in me, do hereby issue this order as a measure necessary and expedient for meeting the supreme emergency of the existing state of war between the United States and certain foreign countries.

The State Guard shall consist of such organizations and units as the Commander-in-Chief may from time to time prescribe or authorize to be formed, shall be composed of volunteers of seventeen years of age or older, but without specific maximum age limit, and shall be organized and maintained in accordance with pertinent Federal law.

The provisions of Acts of 1943, chapter 35, section 7, to the extent that such provisions are inconsistent with this order, shall be inoperative during the effective period hereof.

GIVEN at the Executive Chamber in Boston, this 24th day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and forty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the one hundred and sixty-eighth.

By His Excellency the Governor,
Leverett Saltonstall