COLUMBIA, S.C. - The state's Adjutant General Stan Spears doesn't want a commander of a proposed naval militia to hold his equivalent rank.

Spears, who is a two-star general, has fought the proposal in a conference committee considering whether to re-establish the naval militia, said the bill's sponsor, Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston.

"This thing does boil down, in my opinion, to rank envy," McConnell said. "I am just not going to cater to rank envy."

Spears was out of the country Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.

The militia would protect ports as part of the state's homeland security efforts in cooperation with the Navy and Coast Guard, McConnell said.

The militia was created in 1892, but became part of the federal government in 1917 as the U.S. Naval Reserve.