The governor shall appoint general officers of the national guard from qualified federally recognized officers of the national guard, who have served at least 5 years as commissioned officers in the national guard, and shall be qualified for federal recognition as general officers. In the event of a merger of the national guard and another reserve component, the commissioned service in the reserve component shall be considered comparable to national guard federally recognized commissioned service in meeting the requirements of this section.
MCL 32.613