3rd Bn 126th Infantry Detroit City Mi Mugs

The Third Battalion 126th Infantry was ordered to state active duty on 31 August 1966, following four nights of racial violence at Benton Harbor, Michigan. A total force of four hundred officers and men were assembled. On 23 July 1967, the Grand Rapids Guard was called to active state duty once again, this time in response to rioting in the city of Detroit where arsonists and sniper fire had caused extensive damage from fires, resulting in deaths to both rioters and civilian authorities.

On 4 April 1968, Martin Luther King Jr., a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, was assassinated. The Michigan National Guard was ordered to state active duty the next day, to prevent possible outbreaks of violence similar to the previous summer (such as those in Detroit, Newark, Tampa, Buffalo, Plainfield). Headquarters Forty-sixth Brigade and Third Battalion, 126th Infantry proceeded to Detroit and established round-the-clock patrols to prevent any incidents.

On 15 November 1965, the most radical reorganization in the history of the National Guard took place on orders of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara creating a Selected Reserve Force (SRF or "super-ready force"). The Second Brigade, Forty-sixth Infantry Division, was designated the headquarters for SRF units in Michigan, with the Third Battalion 126th Infantry designated as West Michigan’s SRF battalion. All Michigan elements of the SRF were additionally assigned to the Thirty-eighth Infantry Division of Indiana, an SRF division in the event of mobilization.