TN the DOD in it's current roll is responsible for base security among other things. I do understand it does go a little deeper than that. But Martial law I believe is usually interpreted as military control. There are DOD on the bases I work on. They are govt employees who go home off base. Just considered civil servants. While there they are security, investigators, police, etc,,,, a police force for federal land. I may be totally wrong but I thought martial law would be the military or military reserve? Not at all being obtuse towards you. I would like to know how their Northcom plan has to do with civilians besides the ones that visit the bases? Asking because wondering if this is another federal entity the population needs to worry about? Actually we most likely need to worry about them all.
I poked around a little and most of the scare is out of some things FEMA has been associated with around H1N1, not DOD. Martial law has historically been the role of the National Guard, which until recently fell solely under the direction of the Governor of the state to which they are assigned.
NORTHCOM is a geographic label, like CENTCOM, AFRICOM, PACOM ... Its responsibility under DOD is basing and contracts in North America, as such they have no organic operational capacity. If it helps to understand, the 82nd may be operational, but they don't take orders from base, for example. So the current order in effect was issued to those commands with base responsibilities. Many many civilians work on bases, and many more are family of the service members. In the event of an epidemic, all base operations are supposed to have contingency plans to keep running things like the engineering plant, medical, etc. Anything considered life support to base, or critical, and anything base provides to operational commands, or tenants, that operate on the base. As I've read the plan, civilian employees and contractors serving in those areas considered critical to base will continue to work. Things like housing construction, base schools, and the Robin Hoods deli will most likely be closed. Force protection on the bases will most likely increase, and movement on off base will be restricted further. If the civilian workforce is heavily affected, then unaffected military personnel may be reassigned to fill gaps to keep the medical center open and the lights on ... on base.
Again, this order has nothing to do with anything off base, i.e. not your home town. This is just continuation of operational capability on military bases.The intent of the order is to ensure that a defensive force remains in readiness throughout an epidemic in the event an enemy chose that moment to exploit our weakness. "Provide for the common defense" is still our mission.