Thread: CA Guard Picks Border Headquarters

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/m...1m27guard.html

California Guard picks border headquarters



By Steve Liewer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
June 27, 2006

The California National Guard will establish the headquarters for its border task force this week in Chula Vista, a National Guard spokesman said yesterday.

In a May 15 address, President Bush asked the nation's governors to provide 6,000 National Guard troops to augment the Border Patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger agreed to send 1,000 California Guardsmen.

Col. Kevin Ellsworth is leading the task force, which this week numbers about 500 soldiers and will total 1,000 by the end of July, said Maj. Daniel Markert, a Guard spokesman in Sacramento.
Markert said Ellsworth and a few dozen members of the task force will operate from the Chula Vista headquarters. Others will work from Border Patrol offices in San Diego and El Centro.

About 300 Guardsmen are in place along the border, Markert said, including about 200 in the San Diego area. An additional 235 have arrived for processing and training this week at the San Diego Naval Station at 32nd Street.

Guardsmen involved in border duty are mostly volunteers drawn from units statewide, Markert said. They typically will serve tours of 30 to 90 days before being replaced by other volunteers.

About half of all California National Guard troops have seen combat duty recently in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Egypt's Sinai Desert or Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Those veterans will be exempt from the border call-up, Markert said.

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Steve Liewer: (619) 498-6632; steve.liewer@uniontrib.com

I wonder how we can show our suport to the men and women of the guard
?

The ones I feel sorry for are those who are in El Centro, it's hot down there! But maybe they will be lucky and have a nice air conditioned office to work in.
As to supporting them I plan on thanking them in person when I see them on the border.