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 246 units swapped all heavy equipment and supplies while the men carried only their personal arms and equipment with them. Thus the units experienced only a limited decline in combat efficiency. The two seasoned divisions returned to Japan to serve as a reserve. Until July 1953 the 2d, 3d, 7th, 25th, 40th, and 45th Infantry Divisions carried the fight in Korea. During the waning days of the conflict, immediately before the armistice on 25 July, the 24th Infantry Division returned to Korea as a rear area force to bolster the security of prisoner-of-war camps.

In 1952 Congress authorized what were in effect eight more divisions for the National Guard to replace the units in federal service. These organizations gave some areas of the country military forces where none had existed since units were federalized two years earlier for the Korean War. Under the new law the federal government could retain National Guard units (exclusive of personnel) for five years, but the states could organize replacements for the units in federal service. The new local units were to have the same designations as the units in federal service, with the additional identification NGUS (National Guard of the United States). Furthermore, the legislation required that when the Guard units in federal service were returned to the states, they were to be consolidated with their sister organizations. States began organizing NGUS units in 1952, and by the end of the Korean War on 23 July 1953, six out of the eight Guard divisions in federal service had local counterparts. Of the remaining two, the 37th Infantry Division (NGUS) received federal recognition on 15 January 1954, but the 44th never had an NGUS counterpart. The governor of Illinois, as an economy move, declined to organize it and requested the state's troop allotment be amended to delete the 44th Infantry Division. The division was removed from the force when it was released from federal service in December 1954.

In addition to fighting the war in Korea in the early 1950s, the nation committed forces to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Since 1947 only the 1st Infantry Division had been stationed in Europe, but with the establishment of NATO President Truman announced a substantial increase in forces there. Between May and November 1951 the 2d Armored Division and the 4th, 28th,