Thread: Memo says Guard mission to last at least two years

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Memo says Guard mission to last at least two years
May 20, 2006 01:13 AM

SACRAMENTO -- President Bush's planned deployment of National Guard troops to the Mexican border would last at least two years with no clear end date, according to a Pentagon memo obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

The one-page "initial guidance" memo to National Guard leaders in border states does not address the estimated cost of the mission or when soldiers would be deployed. But high-ranking officials in the California National Guard said they were told Friday that deployments would not begin before early June.

After the memo was released, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger initiated a conference call with the governors of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas in hopes of getting a clearer picture of the president's plan, a Schwarzenegger administration official said.

A spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Kathy Walt, said the governors agreed to send a letter asking the Bush administration to clarify issues such as funding, rotation and troop levels that would be stationed in each of the states.

While the military document makes clear the troops would remain under the command of their governors, it also indicates a high degree of federal control over operations.

It states that the National Guard Bureau's Army and Air Directories "will serve as the states' focal points for force-planning, training, organizing and equipping their forces."

Guardsmen in "all other states, territories and the District of Columbia" will serve a supportive role, according to the memo.

Gov. Schwarzenegger has said repeatedly this week that he has not decided whether to commit troops to the mission because he has serious concerns about how long the deployments might last and if they would hinder the state's ability to respond to a natural disaster or terrorist attack.

Adam Mandelsohn, the governor's communications director, said the memo provided little new information.

"There still remains a lot of unanswered questions that the governor is concerned about. Most specifically, the outstanding funding issues and whether there is a commitment to the two-year time frame," he said.

Perry and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano have said they would support the deployment of National Guard troops to the border, while New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, has been more critical of the plan.

Aides to Napolitano said federal officials previously indicated the deployments would last more than a year so the memo's description of the length of the mission was not a surprise.

"It doesn't sound too open-ended to me," Dennis Burke, a Napolitano co-chief of staff, said of the memo. "She believes that we need to be getting more details but I don't think that's her concern at this point, about the length of the program."

Rather, Napolitano is more concerned about Arizona actually receiving federal reimbursement, according to Burke. "Our concern is the check in the mail. It is the federal government," he said.

Bush administration officials had said "they would try to have this as a two-year program" and that National Guard troops "would be replaced by the Border Patrols being hired on," Burke said.

The president outlined the plan Monday night as part of a national address on curbing illegal immigration, pledging to gain control of the border and give up to 12 million illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship.

He proposed deploying 6,000 troops at a time to the border in two-week rotations. The deployments would be temporary, he said, until enough Border Patrol agents were hired to secure it. He asked Congress to add 6,000 more Border Patrol agents by the end of his presidency.

The White House also said the troops would be paid for as part of $1.9 billion requested from Congress this year to supplement border enforcement.

The memo sent Friday to Guard leaders went further, stating that units would remain in a "federally funded" mission for "up to one year, with a force reduction to 3,000 during the second year."

The document described an "end date" for the mission when the U.S. Border Patrol operation "gains independent operational control of the (southwest border) and National Guard forces are no longer required for this mission."

The memo was signed by Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, which coordinates operations between the Pentagon and state National Guard forces.

In a conference call Friday, the adjutant general of the California National Guard, Maj. Gen. William H. Wade II, asked Blum to provide more details of the plan, said California National Guard spokesman Jon Siepmann.

Wade asked Blum to more clearly define the Guard's exit plan and clarify how the border states that would provide the bulk of the mission's resources would be reimbursed, Siepmann said.

Wade also told Blum he was concerned about not being authorized to directly communicate with local border patrol offices in San Diego and elsewhere to help develop a plan for the possible deployment of his troops

"The memo was a helpful initial step," Siepmann said, "but a variety of questions remain for us to be able to provide our governor with the information he needs to make informed decisions about the mission."

The memo said Guard units' missions will focus on "surveillance, reconnaissance, aviation, intelligence, engineering, training, vehicle dismantling, linguistics ... transportation and logistics."

They will not be asked to perform law-enforcement functions, but rather provide "vetted and pre-coordinated support to law enforcement."

Associated Press Writers Paul Davenport in Phoenix and Sheila Flynn in Dallas contributed to this report.

Well I hope it's on rotation basis. Not two years! My husband would probably be let go from his job if he was gone two years!

The first time he was sent away after 9/11, for a year, when he returned he didn't get that yearly raise. He brought it up a few times, but they didn't do anything.

Originally Posted by moosetracks

Well I hope it's on rotation basis. Not two years! My husband would probably be let go from his job if he was gone two years!

The first time he was sent away after 9/11, for a year, when he returned he didn't get that yearly raise. He brought it up a few times, but they didn't do anything.

that ticks me off, it's not like he was on vacation.

Memo says Guard mission to last at least two years

a "memo" isn't an act of Congress and troops will probably be on the border until the election in November