The Virginia Defense Force (VDF) is the official state defense force of Virginia, one of the three components of Virginia's state military along with the Virginia National Guard which includes the Virginia Army National Guard, the Virginia Air National Guard, and the unorganized militia. As of 2019, the VDF has approximately 250 soldiers. The VDF is the descendant of the Virginia State Guard, the Virginia Regiment, and ultimately the Colonial Virginia militia of the Virginia Colony. The Virginia Defense Force Command is headquartered at the historic Old City Hall, but drills out of the Waller Armory in Richmond, Virginia. State law allows the command to grow to as many as 7,800 troops to be activated in the VDF when necessary by a call out by the Governor. The VDF is all-volunteer unless activated to "Active Duty" status and augmented by unorganized militia draftees by the Governor of Virginia. The federal government authorizes purely state-level forces under which provides that state forces as a whole may not be called, ordered, or drafted into the armed forces of the United States, thus preserving their separation from the National Guard. However, under the same law, individual members serving in state-level forces are not exempt from service in the armed forces by nature of serving in a state defense force. But, under 32 USC § 109(e) "A person may not become a member of a defense force if he is a member of a reserve component of the armed forces." However, officer or soldiers placed on the retired roll of the Active Army or Reserve components, are eligible, with prior approval from the Governor, to transfer their commission to a military command within that State, and continue to serve at present or higher rank. History In 1607, the Virginia Militia was formed as a part of the English militia system in order to provide an organized defense against attacks and to give the Governor a body of men capable of bringing order during a disaster. The Indian massacre of 1622 took place in the Colony of Virginia, when Chief Opechancanough led the Powhatan Confederacy in a coordinated series of surprise attacks; they killed a total of 347 people, a quarter of the population of the Virginia colony. Soon after in 1623, the Governor, Sir Francis Wyatt, dictated that all men in the Virginia Militia must drill every month on their county court house green.