Published on Saturday, July 15, 2006
N.C. Guard unit to protect border
By Henry Cuningham
Military editor
Two years ago, guardsmen from southeastern North Carolina were in the Iraqi desert helping secure the Iranian border. Next week, they will go to the New Mexico desert for two weeks to watch over the U.S. border with Mexico.
“In Iraq, we had the ability to stop traffic coming in,” Maj. Mike Bruschi said. “Here, we will be allowing the border police to do their job of detention.”
Bruschi is executive officer of the 252nd Combined Arms Battalion, which has its headquarters at the Fayetteville armory on East Mountain Drive.
“Our soldiers are excited to go to New Mexico because it is something different,” Bruschi said. “It is a real-world mission. Our soldiers seem to see the importance of it.”
The battalion is providing soldiers from its companies, which are based in armories from near Charlotte to northeastern North Carolina.
“The National Guard is supporting the border police in conducting their missions,” Bruschi said. “Essentially, we are setting up a series of observation posts that we will, as we see border crossers, report to the border police. They will interdict the border-crossers. They will detain them.”
The battalion will be on Fort Bragg today for a monthly drill weekend with administrative processing and training on the firing ranges.
About 200 North Carolina guardsmen will fly to Albuquerque on July 22 and go to spots along the 180-mile border for their annual training, Bruschi said. They will return Aug. 5. Another 350 will participate in the previously scheduled two-week annual training at Fort Bragg, Bruschi said.
“We had planned on doing maintenance this year during annual training, so the deployment of the soldiers to New Mexico is not going to effect what we had planned to do significantly,” Bruschi said.
About 3,600 guardsmen from around the United States have been involved in the border mission in the Southwest since June 15, Army Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, told Pentagon reporters Friday.
About 6,000 guardsmen will participate by Aug. 1, Blum said.
Mexican President Vicente Fox has expressed concern over militarization of the border. U.S. senators, such as Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, have questioned the wisdom of using the military and the National Guard for the mission.
“The president asked for assistance from the National Guard,” said Maj. Gen. William Ingram, the adjutant general of North Carolina. “We are well-positioned to provide that assistance.”
Ingram said he is a “proponent” of the border mission and agrees with Blum that the National Guard is the “right organization” to do the job if needed.
The border mission is “low impact” for the guardsmen from the 252nd, who were previously scheduled for annual training. Soldiers doing annual training are not available for emergency response, and the N.C. Guard has enough soldiers and equipment available to respond to hurricanes, Ingram said.
There have been no incidents between guardsmen and border crossers, but the soldiers will be armed and prepared to defend themselves if necessary, Bruschi said.
“The biggest issues are medical,” Bruschi said. “Heat is always an issue whenever you put somebody out in 110-degree temperature or higher you are going to have in New Mexico during the day.”
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