CONTRA COSTA TIMES Apr. 19, 2002
Guard readiness in question Soldiers decry a lack of weapons training and equipment, and claim they are ill-prepared to handle many threats
By Jessica Guynn and Thomas Peele Karl Mondon/Contra Costa Times
A National Guardsman makes his way past the front gate of Fort Point back to his post guarding the Golden Gate Bridge.
Some California National Guard troops charged with protecting Bay Area bridges against terrorism fear the spans are vulnerable because the soldiers lack the necessary weapons and training.
In interviews with the Times seven months after terrorists struck New York and Washington, D.C., soldiers deployed on the Bay and Golden Gate bridges to back up the Highway Patrol and other law enforcement agencies questioned the National Guard's readiness to respond to a major threat.
They say noncommissioned officers leading the mission have told them they are there "just for show."
George Vinson, Gov. Gray Davis' special adviser on state security, disclosed Thursday that the bridges have been the target of credible terrorist threats, but he would not elaborate.
"We're very concerned not only about the bridges, but certain other (public) infrastructure" such as nuclear plants and water ways, Vinson said.
The National Guard's top commanders have assured him the troops are capable of carrying out their part in protecting Bay Area and Southern California suspension bridges, Vinson said.
"I am convinced the troops have the gear and the training they need to do the mission," he said.
But four soldiers speaking on the condition of anonymity say they often don't have basic equipment to maintain weapons, were for months saddled with vehicles that didn't run, and were not adequately trained with their weapons or in carrying out a wartime mission in areas crowded with civilians.
"It scares the (expletive) out of you," one soldier said.
The National Guard vigorously denies the charges.
Guard troops usually protect the disaster-prone state in the event of natural disasters or public disturbances. Davis activated the volunteer force to the wartime duty of defending California from terrorists in November following unsubstantiated threats to the state's four suspension bridges.
Soldiers are trained to watch for and report any suspicious activity to the Highway Patrol and other law enforcement agencies, a Guard spokeswoman said.
In light of ongoing threats to the bridges, soldiers say they are concerned for their own and the public's safety. "This isn't a game. We're at war," one said. "There are shortcomings that need to be addressed and taken care of."
Chief among the soldiers' concerns:
They have incomplete kits to clean their M-16s, weapons that experts say require "scrupulous" maintenance. The barrels of some rifles are so dirty that one soldier said looking down them is like looking into a coal mine.
Another soldier said the clip fell out of his weapon seven times. "If we ever had to light up on someone, it would probably jam," he said.
The weapons are constantly exposed to the corrosive salt air of San Francisco Bay, soldiers say. "Those weapons are supposed to be taken back to the armory and really cleaned and taken care of on a weekly basis," said a soldier who has left the mission. "All the time I was there, those weapons never left those trucks."
Clark Hodges, a military historian and former Marine who makes training videos about M-16s, said if the weapons are not kept clean, the soldiers "are risking lives and the mission."
Major Kim Oliver, spokeswoman for the National Guard, said weapons are checked at each shift for "serviceability." "If they are not serviceable, they are replaced," she said. She said there is no shortage of cleaning kits.
Soldiers say they patrolled the bridges for months without protective vests until a retired general urged the National Guard to supply them. The Highway Patrol gave soldiers surplus bulletproof vests that were 10 to 15 years out of date, too old to stop most bullets, one expert said.
John Nixon, a ballistics expert at the Indiana Institute of Technology, said soldiers should be outfitted with military, not police, vests.
"The only thing those vests are good for is keeping us warm," said a soldier. The vests are so dilapidated, he added, that soldiers have to tie the loose straps into knots to keep them from falling off their shoulders.
One soldier resorted to borrowing more modern vests from a friend at a local police department. Oliver said she had heard the vests were outdated but said they were optional. The Guard does not plan to issue vests because they are not needed, she said.
Soldiers tapped to guard the bridges come from a hodgepodge of military specialties, not from military police or infantry units rigorously trained in the use of their firearms and in guarding civilian areas.
"They have no training in this type of situation except what they picked up in boot camp," a soldier said.
"These guys do their jobs," another said. "But when it comes down to their basic infantry skills, those are quite lacking." Firearms experts say soldiers should be trained at the target range at least once a month, if not every week.
Oliver said each soldier assigned to security on the bridges is adequately trained. "They're qualified to do the mission that the CHP has asked us to assist them with," she said. "Our chain of command from the adjunct general on down feels that our soldiers are fully capable and are trained adequately."
The Guard requires weapon certification once a year, Oliver said.
For months, troops manned checkpoints in trucks that didn't run, which would have made it difficult for them to quickly respond to a terrorist attack on the spans. The brakes failed in one truck and it almost hit a passing car, a soldier said.
"The vehicles ... sat there for a couple of weeks before we got replacements," he said. Now most of the trucks run, but some still have cracked or broken windows, exposing soldiers especially at the Fort Point checkpoint underneath the Golden Gate Bridge to the chilly night air and the spray of the surf.
Oliver said as of Thursday, one vehicle was in the shop. She said she had heard other 14-year or older vehicles in use on the bridge mission needed maintenance in the past. The Guard has requested newer vehicles, she said.
Col. William V. Wenger, a retired commander of the California Army National Guard, said the Guard lacks the equipment, training and resources to mount a serious counter-terrorism initiative.
The Guard "still has not taken proper steps to supply the troops with proper equipment," he said.
Wenger described the bridge deployment as "eyewash." "You cannot guard what you cannot control, and they are not given the equipment and the manpower to control the bridges."
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a military research group based in Alexandria, Va., said the National Guard often winds up with military "hand-me-downs."
"If these guys are complaining they are underequipped and undertrained, that's a true fact," said Pike, who is conducting an audit of all National Guard operations in the country. "No one would pretend otherwise."
Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the Democratic Task Force on Homeland Security, called the soldiers' alleged lack of equipment and training unacceptable.
"These are good Americans who are doing the right thing. Don't you think they deserve state-of-the-art in Kevlar protection? I think they do."
Tauscher said she wants all terrorist-related personnel grouped under one Cabinet-level agency with direct congressional oversight. Democrats are in an increasingly tense standoff with the White House over whether Congress has the right to oversee Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge's office.
"This is just irresponsible that we have not moved a scintilla of an inch closer to where we should be seven months later. ... (National Guard troops) are our defenders here. We better get them equipped and trained."
The total cost of the Guard's anti-terrorism mission on four California bridges was $2.5 million as of last month, according to the Department of Finance. Government officials estimate the state will pay $400 million this year for counter-terrorism.
Copyright 2002 CONTRA COSTA TIMES
