§26-21  Department of defense.  (a)  Thedepartment of defense shall be headed by a single executive to be known as theadjutant general.  The adjutant general shall also be the director of civildefense.

There shall be a full-time vice director ofcivil defense who shall be appointed and may be removed by the director.

The department shall be responsible for thedefense of the State and its people from mass violence, originating from eitherhuman or natural causes.

The devolution of command of the militaryforces in the absence of the adjutant general shall be within the militaryestablishment.  The devolution of command of the civil defense agency in theabsence of the director of civil defense shall be within the civil defenseagency.

(b)  There shall be within the department ofdefense a commission to be known as the civil defense advisory council whichshall sit in an advisory capacity to the director of civil defense on matterspertaining to civil defense.  The composition of the commission shall be asheretofore provided by law for the civil defense advisory council existingimmediately prior to November 25, 1959.

(c)  The functions and authority heretoforeexercised by the military department and the civil defense agency as heretoforeconstituted are transferred to the department of defense established by thischapter.

The office of veterans' services and theadvisory board on veterans' services as constituted by chapter 363 are placedwithin the department of defense for administrative purposes. [L Sp 1959 2d, c1, §28; Supp, §14A-27; HRS §26-21; am L 1969, c 122, §1; am L 1981, c 82, §2and c 135, §4; am L 1988, c 115, §2]