The all-volunteer organization will help do everything from directing traffic to coordinating relief supply shipments when the next hurricane threatens South Carolina.

The 1,500-person force is needed now more than ever because of the number of National Guard members from the state called up for the war in Iraq and other homeland defense duties, said Lt. Col. Pete Brooks, spokesman for the South Carolina National Guard.

The State Guard has other duties too, such as recruiting AmeriCorps volunteers for neighborhood crime watches in the Lowcountry and providing honor guards at funerals around Lancaster.

The State Guard traces its roots to 1670, when it was founded as a militia to watch over the settlement of Charles Town.

State Guard units are part of the state Military Department and under the command of the governor and adjutant general, but many units work hand in hand with local agencies.

Members wear uniforms; are organized in squads, platoons, companies, battalions and brigades; and use the same rank structure from private to general as the Army.

Unlike members of the Army and National Guard, State Guard members are not armed and cannot be deployed outside South Carolina.

The State Guard manages to do all of its work with a budget of just $105,000 a year.

The State Guard recently was given specific duties for when a hurricane threatens, commander Maj. Gen. Eli Wishart said.

About 120 members will be stationed at Interstates 26 and 77 near Columbia to direct traffic and answer questions.

Other members will help evacuate coastal areas, staff the state's welcome centers to make sure relief supplies go to the right place, and help sheriffs' offices by answering phones or riding along with deputies.

A brigade of the guard organized last year works under the AmeriCorps program. Some of the volunteers have set up neighborhood crime watches in Dorchester County.

"We had had several break-ins, drug dealers were living in our neighborhood, and there was a murder just two doors up from me," said AmeriCorps volunteer Susan Gillespie, 43, of Summerville. "Enough was enough."

Dorchester County Sheriff Ray Nash calls the guard "South Carolina's best-kept secret."

"It's something every sheriff should use to augment forces in their county," he said.

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