9/20/2001 - National Guard on duty before call up
Story by Sgt. 1st Class Tom Roberts
National Guard Bureau
WASHINGTON -- A total of 9,600 National Guard men and women were already on duty across the country Sept. 14 when President George Bush approved an order to call up as many as 50,000 members of the National Guard and Reserves.
Many of the New York Guard troops supporting the massive recovery operation at "ground zero" in lower Manhattan were from the neighboring Bronx, observed Army Guard public affairs Sgt. 1st Class Paul Mouilleseaux.
They were angered about how close to home that Tuesday's terrorist attacks had come, Mouilleseaux said.
"We're taking this personal," said Sgt. David Perez of the Manhattan-based 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry, while issuing respirators, gloves, goggles and other supplies to people working among the massive piles of rubble.
"The National Guard is fully prepared for and is responding to the order of the president," said Lt. Gen. Russell Davis, chief of the National Guard Bureau. "The National Guard continues to serve and support the states and the nation and will see this tragedy through."
"We're prepared to provide whatever resources the secretary of defense would want to use," vowed Maj. Gen. Phillip Oates, Alaska's adjutant general. "We've responded to call-ups in the past, and we're prepared to do that again."
President Bush's call for a temporary tour of active duty for up to 50,000 National Guard and Reserve troops in a military operation on American soil is the largest of its kind since 1916, said National Guard Bureau historian Renee Hylton.
President Bush's father authorized a TTAD of 265,322 Guard and Reserve troops for Operation Desert Storm against Iraq Jan. 18, 1991.
But that military operation took place far from this country's borders. Operation "Noble Eagle" is for homeland defense and civil support.
The last time a large number of troops were called on to serve on U.S. soil was when President Woodrow Wilson ordered the entire National Guard of 158,664 troops to seal off the Mexican border, after Mexican outlaw Pancho Villa raided Columbus, N.M., and killed 17 people, including nine U.S. soldiers.
Many of the Guard units stayed on duty in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas for a year, Hylton said, in what was the most extensive military operation in this country since the Civil War.
So far for "Noble Eagle" there have been about 5,000 members of the Army National Guard and 4,600 members of the Air National Guard, according to the National Guard Bureau.
"These reservists are being called upon to provide port operations, medical support, engineer support, general civil support and homeland defense," said a Defense official. "This ... demonstrates the vital role of reserve forces in our national military strategy."
"While requirements for up to 35,000 members have been identified, those needs have yet to be translated into specific units or individuals for call up," Davis told governors and adjutants general in the 54 states and territories. "We, like you, will have to wait patiently for the call. When that call comes, be assured you will be immediately notified."
The additional troops will be welcome, say citizen-soldiers who are already on duty -- especially at the World Trade Center site where the air stinks of burnt rubber and oil and where the devastation defies the imagination.
"It is a million times worse than I expected it to be," said Mouilleseaux, who was sent from Washington to where two of the world's tallest skyscrapers once stood. "TV does not do it justice. You have to see it to believe it."
"It's an emotionally draining experience," said New York Army Guard Pfc. Jessica McIvor, a chaplain's assistant, about supporting the Guard soldiers serving there. "Soldiers are not immune to this, but we are here to try to help."
The catastrophe has accomplished one thing, observed a chaplain Maj. Bruce Morris. "America is finally coming together, and the National Guard is playing a large role in that."
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