Senate honors California Air National Guard members for international maritime rescue

By Army Maj. Jonathan Shiroma

California National Guard

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Seven California Air National Guard members from the 129th Rescue Wing was recognized on the California Senate floor today for their efforts in the successful rescue of two injured fishermen March 12.

The Guard members rescued the fishermen from a fishing vessel in international waters 500 miles off the coast of Acapulco, Mexico.

Senator Lou Correa, chairman of the California Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, will introduce each Airman by name and speak about their personal involvement in the rescue operation.

The 129th received a call from the U.S. Coast Guard on the evening of March 9 concerning two injured fishermen aboard a fishing vessel. The fishermen, badly burned in a diesel fire, required medical treatment beyond the capabilities of the vessel's medical staff.

Due to the vessel's remote location in the Pacific Ocean and the immediate need for medical care, the 129th accepted the mission.

The 129th rallied two MC-130P Combat Shadow cargo refueling aircraft, two HH-60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopters and a team of Pararecuemen to complete the mission.

After flying more than 1750 miles the team parachuted into the open ocean with necessary supplies, boarded the vessel, stabilized the patients, hoisted them off the vessel and rushed them to a medical facility in San Diego.

This rescue brings the total number of people saved by the 129th to 950.

DOD Takes Southern Border Support to Air

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON  – Defense Department and National Guard support to southwest U.S. border security will change in the next few months from a ground effort to primarily air, Defense and Homeland Security officials said today.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the lead federal agency charged with defending the southwest U.S border with Mexico, but the Defense Department, specifically the National Guard, works closely in support of the effort, and has since 2010.

But the mission has changed, said Paul Stockton, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and Americas’ security affairs. Customs, he said, has beefed up its manpower and technical abilities and no longer needs the numbers of National Guard personnel on the ground.

“CBP has changed the kind of support that it is asking the Department of Defense to provide,” he said, “and DOD is transitioning to much more effective support … that not only matches up to what CBP needs, but provides more flexibility against an adaptive adversary.”

The border is better protected because of the cooperative relationship between defense and homeland security, said David Aguilar, the Customs and Border Protection agency’s deputy commissioner.

“Over the last year, we had over 1,200 National Guard representatives on the line with us,” Aguilar said. Under the new system, he said, fewer than 300 Guardsmen are needed.

The Guardsmen worked with border police to man entry identification teams. These are fixed positions and were what was required at the time. But times change, and now the Border Patrol requires aerial platforms to provide intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and mobility ability.

This mission will begin around the first of the year and completely transition by March, Aguilar said.

“There will be a ramp down of the static [entry identification teams] and the boots on the ground related to those [teams], but a ramp-up on the aerial support and platforms,” he said.

Border Patrol Chief Michael Fisher said the patrol has grown to 21,450 officers. The aviation assets will focus at first on detection and monitoring capabilities, he said. Guardsmen will fly specially equipped OH-58 and UH-72 helicopters with a detection radius of 6 and 12 nautical miles, respectively. In addition, Guardsmen will fly RC-26 fixed-wing aircraft with detection and monitoring capability of 12 nautical miles.

Such capability will enable the Border Patrol to work in more challenging terrain and give the patrol a faster reaction time to prevent illegal activities. These airborne assets will be able to look way over the horizon of a person on the ground and be able to flow personnel into an area.

Defense officials will continue to work with Customs and Border Protection officials to figure the mix of aircraft and capabilities and where the aircraft and ground stations will be.

The new National Guard mission will end Dec. 31, 2012, officials said.

Guard Leaders Hope Efficiencies Will Extend Border Role

By Lisa Daniel

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Nov. 29, 2010 – National Guard soldiers and airmen are making a big difference to civilian law enforcement officers working along the U.S. southwest border, and officials hope smart fiscal oversight will allow them to stay through the spring, a National Guard Bureau official said.

Homeland Security Department officials have told military leaders at the Pentagon that they are “very impressed” with the support from 1,195 soldiers and airmen deployed to the border to help DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Protection agents, Army Maj. Gen. Peter M. Aylward told American Forces Press Service in a Nov. 24 interview.

Representatives from Homeland Security, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, and the adjutants general for California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas discussed the Guard’s contribution along the border and their deployment schedule during a Nov. 23 video teleconference, said Aylward, a special assistant to the chief of the National Guard Bureau.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano visited California National Guard members in San Diego, along with her top military advisor, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Chuck Michel, on Oct. 18. Michel reported back that there is a high return on investment from President Barack Obama’s directive in May to send up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the border, Aylward said.

“He said they are very impressed with the attitude, professionalism, and great support the National Guard soldiers and airmen are providing in the San Diego sector, and across the board in the other states,” he said. “The troops are doing great work, and it’s greatly appreciated by our colleagues who are working to hire and train 1,000 agents.”

The Guard members were asked to support the federal agents until the new hires are on board. The Guard reached capacity for the mission in October, and the directive calls for the drawdown of troops to begin in February. Government officials, though, are still working out the redeployment schedule, Aylward said. Redeployment is tied to the $135 million allocated to the mission, which is shared equally between the Homeland Security and Defense departments.

“How long we sustain the 1,200 folks on the border is part and parcel to the $135 million,” he said. “The rampdown schedule is something the team is working through right now with the four states. The reality is we have had no change to the existing requirement and don’t anticipate a change to that requirement.” The challenge, he added, is how to execute that requirement within the budget allocation.

Because of the “great fiscal stewardship” of the four adjutants general, Aylward said, officials hope to extend the drawdown timeline into late spring, and perhaps into June. The adjutants general cut costs for the operation by using lower-level personnel and finding alternatives to work-related travel to stretch the appropriated funds, he said.

Defense and Homeland Security officials are reviewing the drawdown schedule to determine how long they can fund it, Aylward said.

The troops are working mostly in “entry identification teams” that operate in secret locations to provide oversight of the 2,000-mile border between the four states and Mexico, the general said.

“For us, it’s really nothing new,” he said. “They work in listening posts, observation posts, gathering information to give to law enforcement for prosecution.”

The Guard members also work as criminal analysts in support of immigration and customs officials, Aylward said. “We do a great job with analytical work and intelligence around the globe, so this is a great fit for us,” he said.

“This, frankly, is just another chapter in this initiative [to reduce transnational threats along the southwest border] that began even before DHS started, going back to 1993 with Customs and Border Protection,” he added.

This year has seen an improvement along the border, with illegal immigration down 23 percent between January and August, Aylward noted. During the same time, drug seizures were up 15 percent and weapons seizures were up 30 percent. At the same time, drug violence has surged in Mexico, but little has spilled over to the U.S. states, he said.

“Our challenge is how to have rules that facilitate trade, tourism and commerce, but eliminate transnational threats and illegal activity,” Aylward said. “We’re part of those who are helping with those solutions by screening out the transnational threats.”

The breakdown of Guard members along the border is 224 in California, 524 in Arizona, 72 in New Mexico, and 250 in Texas. Another 130 are working command and control, officials said.

Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Kelly Rose Ivahnenko said the National Guard teams help to fill gaps in surveillance coverage along the border, enhance interdiction efforts with analysis and technology such as infrared sensing devices and truck-mounted cameras, and provide agents with real-time information.

“National Guard troops serve as valuable partners and are a tremendous asset in bolstering our border security efforts, along with unprecedented resources in manpower, technology and infrastructure that have been allocated by this administration,” Ivahnenko said.

As examples, Ivahnenko said, Guard members have assisted Border Patrol with 2,500 apprehensions and the seizure of nearly 3,000 pounds of marijuana in the Tucson, Ariz., sector. In Texas, Guard members have helped to secure 25 apprehensions and 200 pounds of marijuana in the El Paso sector and 430 apprehensions and 1,348 pounds of marijuana in the Rio Grande Valley sector. California National Guardsmen have detected 1,046 illegal entries that resulted in arrests by Border Patrol agents, she said.

Guard Presence on Border Deters Threats

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy

National Guard Bureau

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 17, 2010 – The presence of National Guard troops along the Southwest border has provided U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents with an additional resource to counter drug smuggling, human trafficking and other threats along the border, senior Guard officials said this week.

“With every place we’ve visited, our colleagues at Customs and Border Patrol couldn’t praise them enough with stepping up and really providing an incredible capability that gives them the operational flexibility they need, said Army Maj. Gen. Peter Aylward, special assistant to the chief of the National Guard Bureau.

Additional flexibility also gives border patrol agents a greater ability to focus on specific areas within their sectors.

“It helps us alleviate high-traffic areas,” said Mario Escalante, a Customs and Border Patrol supervisory agent. “More than anything else, they will be working as additional eyes and ears. They will be working in … [entry identification sites] giving not just situational awareness of what is going on, but also acting as a [deterrent].”

The deterrence factor readily can be seen in the number of arrests made by Customs and Border Patrol agents. In the Tucson sector, daily arrests have been on a steady decline, said U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials, who attributed the drop in numbers to the Guard troops on duty in the area.

The decrease has been steady for the past few years, officials said, adding that Operation Jump Start, initiated in 2006, provided a much-needed boost.

Because of that, the mission along the border isn’t quite what some troops imagined it would be like.

“When I volunteered for this mission, I expected it to be actually mass amounts of people always crossing over,” said Army Spc. Joseph Syed of the Arizona National Guard. “I really didn’t know what to expect to see, but in my mind I expected to see people just hopping [over the border] and running.”

Still, Syed said, illegal activity along the border still remains constant, with smugglers searching for new ways to cross people and illicit substances across the border.

“We mostly see folks during the day,” he said. “We haven’t seen too many people at night. It started out with one or two scouts a day, and now we have more along the ridge. Now they are actually bringing groups with them.”

Aylward said those smuggling operations often fund larger enterprises, such asnarcoterrorism and transnational threats..

Many have compared the current rotation of Guard troops along the border to Operation Jump Start. The geographical areas may be the same, but that is where the similarity ends.

“This is really totally different than Operation Jump Start,” Aylward said. “It is another phase, another chapter to make sure we’re doing everything we can to maintain the sovereignty of our borders.”

One of the biggest differences is the ramp-up of troops. On average, Guardsmen will go through four weeks of additional training prior to working on the border. They began to arrive along the border in late August and early September, and, as of yesterday, slightly more than 1,200 Guardsmen were in training or already deployed to the border.

The additional time allowed the states to ensure that things ran smoothly, said Air Force Brig. Gen. Jose Salinas, commander of the Arizona joint task force, Operation Copper Cactus.

“With the ramp-up, it’s given us the time to train people, make sure our orders are in place, make sure we get our chain of command up to speed,” he said. “[The troops] feel like they’ve been properly prepared for the situations they might see.”

The training was based on scenarios that ranged from border crossers just needing water to encountering more aggressive, hostile groups.

“They are also getting training in a lot of the technology that we have,” Salinas said. “I feel very confident our troops are getting what they need to perform the mission properly.”

In all of these missions, Guard troops are strictly in support of the Customs and Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

“We see something, and we call it in to Border Patrol,” Syed said. “They’ll go check it out.” This helps Customs and Border Patrol to better focus on specific security issues, he added.

“The augmentation that we’re providing gives them the operational flexibility so they can pool their resources and cover down on those vulnerabilities that have previously existed,” said Aylward, who added that the Guard is part of lessening those vulnerabilities, while the Customs and Border Patrol recruits and trains additional agents.

Aylward, who’d toured all four border states this week, said he has been impressed with what he has seen.

“The motivation, the professionalism and the attitude across the board has been superb,” he said. “It really makes you feel proud to be a part of the team, and it really has been a great experience to come out and visit with the leaders and the soldiers that are performing this mission.”

Guard Plans to Adjust Number of Troops Serving on U.S.-Mexican Border

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

July 10, 2007 – The National Guard plans to adjust the number of personnel performing security duty along the U.S.-Mexican border from about 6,000 to about 3,000 members, a National Guard Bureau spokesman said today. Last year, President Bush directed the National Guard to assist the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency in patrolling the 2,000-mile-long border with Mexico, National Guard Bureau spokesman Army Maj. David Kolarik told American Forces Press Service today during a phone interview from the bureau's headquarters in Arlington, Va.

National Guard members "have performed superbly" in answering the President's call to assist on the border during "Operation Jump Start," Kolarik said. The Customs and Border Protection Agency is a component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Almost 6,000 Guard members - mostly volunteers -- have been on border security duty in the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California in support of the U.S. Border Patrol since June 2006, Kolarik said, noting the reduction was part of original planning.

"It was never meant to be a permanent solution," Kolarik said of the National Guard's participation in Operation Jump Start. "It was just an intermediate measure to provide support for border security efforts until they brought the additional resources and personnel in line that they needed."

The Guard redeployment is slated for completion around Sept. 1, he said.

About 3,000 National Guard members will continue assisting the Customs and Border Protection Agency along the U.S.-Mexican border, Kolarik said.

The National Guard's presence along the U.S.-Mexican border has helped to bolster border-protection efforts to curtail illegal immigration as well as to circumvent narcotics traffic, Kolarik said.

Guard members on border duty do not perform law enforcement missions, but they do conduct surveillance and operate detection equipment, work with border entry identification teams, analyze information, assist with communications and give administrative support to the Border Patrol.

National Guard members "have done just a phenomenal job down there on the border," Kolarik said.