Arizona’s Adjutant General serves as the director of the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs, a State agency combining Arizona's Army and Air National Guard with Joint Military Programs and Emergency Management. This combined effort enables Arizona to have effective and immediate response to emergencies on a Federal, State and Community level.

The National Guard is uniquely organized under the constitution and federal statutes. The Guard and Reserves are equally accessible under federal mobilization and can be called-up for operations, national emergencies, or war...but only the National Guard can be called-up by the individual states. Unless called to active federal service, the Guard is under the command of the Governor, through the direction of the Adjutant General,  Major General Hugo E. Salazar. When called to federal service the President of the United States is commander in chief.

More than 6,000 Arizona Army National Guard and Air National Guard soldiers and airmen have answered the call and been ordered to federal active duty in support of Operation’s Noble Eagle, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom since September 11, 2001.