 As of December the regiment was fully trained and equipped and, by early 1942, the size of the State Guard had increased to just over 4,000 soldiers and officers with the force reorganized into two brigades.The bulk of the force spent the rest of 1942 conducting weekly drills to repel an anticipated Japanese invasion of Washington, while a smaller contingent of 30 personnel were activated to full-time status to man nine observation posts on the Olympic Peninsula.The State Guard, during this time, was primarily composed of older men, however, in 1944 the state began actively recruiting younger males with the idea that it could provide a potential source of post-war manpower for the returned National Guard.