The General Assembly shall biennially elect an Adjutant and Inspector General, who shall also be Quartermaster General with the rank of a major general. The Adjutant General may appoint a deputy with appropriate rank, an Assistant Adjutant General for Army, an Assistant Adjutant General for Air, an Assistant Adjutant General for Joint Operations, a Sergeant Major, and a Chief Master Sergeant, without pay, with the approval of the Governor. The Adjutant and Inspector General may remove the appointed assistant adjutant generals and sergeants and shall be responsible for their acts. Upon appointment, each Assistant Adjutant General shall be a federally recognized officer of the National Guard of the rank of lieutenant colonel or above, and shall have a rank of colonel or brigadier general, and the Sergeant Major shall be a federally recognized noncommissioned officer of the National Guard of the rank of master sergeant or first sergeant or above, and the Chief Master Sergeant shall be a federally recognized noncommissioned officer of the rank of senior master sergeant or first sergeant. The Deputy, Assistants, and Sergeants shall perform duties as the Adjutant and Inspector General and Quartermaster General shall direct. In the absence or disability of the officer, the Deputy shall perform the duties of that office. In case a vacancy occurs in the office of Adjutant and Inspector General and Quartermaster General, the Deputy shall assume and discharge the duties of the office until the vacancy is filled. The appointments shall be in writing and recorded in the office of the Secretary of State. All other officers of the National Guard shall be chosen in accordance with rules adopted by the Governor consistent with the laws of this State and the United States. (Amended 1959, No. 81, eff. April 2, 1959; 1961, No. 2 eff. Feb. 16, 1961; 1965, No. 125, § 19, eff. July 2, 1965; 2003, No. 5, § 1; 2005, No. 67, § 1; 2017, No. 113 (Adj. Sess.), § 115.)