Las Vegas Review-Journal December 27, 2002
Guard units to head overseas
By Keith Rogers
Nevada soldiers from two Army National Guard units in the Reno area received mobilization orders Thursday for overseas deployment, joining a growing list of states that have activated National Guard and Reserve troops for the nation's war on terrorism.
About 15 soldiers from Detachment 1 of the 126th Medical Co. and a pair of UH-60 Black Hawk medical evacuation helicopters based near Stead, north of Reno, will be sent to Southwest Asia.
They were mobilized with 25 soldiers and four aircraft from the unit's parent company, based in Sacramento, Calif., said Staff Sgt. Erick Studenicka, a Nevada Army National Guard spokesman. Also, public affairs specialists from the Nevada Army National Guard's Detachment 1, 69th Press Camp Headquarters, also from Stead, will be sent to an overseas location in support of Operation Enduring Freedom after they join soldiers from their parent company in Fairfield, Calif., for stateside training.
Studenicka could not reveal how many specialists received mobilization orders.
The group of Army medics from the 126th air ambulance unit had been deployed in Kosovo from October 2001 through May.
'This unit is the epitome of professionalism,' Maj. Gen. Giles Vanderhoof, Nevada's adjutant general, was quoted as saying in a statement Thursday announcing the mobilization.
'They've been so busy over the past two years with specialized training and their Kosovo deployment. Getting tapped again to deploy is an honor as well as a challenge,' Vanderhoof said.
In a statement, Gov. Kenny Guinn offered the state's support to the soldiers 'no matter where their future missions may take them.'
'Our hearts go out to the soldiers and family members of those deployed,' Guinn said.
On Dec. 14, Pentagon officials said the Army and Navy would alert about 27,000 National Guard and Reserve forces nationwide for probable duty in the Persian Gulf region.
On Sunday, National Guard and Reserve troops from military police and combat support units in Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama had begun to mobilize, and two Oklahoma units were preparing for a six-month deployment to Kuwait and Egypt in January.
The alert was interpreted by defense analysts as a sign that U.S. leaders are preparing for a military operation against Iraq.
Should President Bush decide military force is necessary, as many as 100,000 National Guard and Reserve forces would be needed for a war aside from the 51,000 already on active duty, mainly for homeland defense.
One analyst said Thursday's mobilization of an Army National Guard medical evacuation unit cannot be interpreted as a sign the United States is on the brink of fighting a war against Iraq next week.
'I think they are going to continue the buildup for another month or so, assuming they don't get completely derailed by North Korea,' said the analyst, John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org, a defense and intelligence policy organization based near Washington, D.C.
He referred to North Korea's recent reactivation of nuclear facilities that could produce weapons. The reactivation violates an agreement the United States made with North Korea to freeze its nuclear development for oil from the United States.
Without distraction from North Korea, Pike said the United States could be ready 'to pull the trigger on Iraq in late January or early February.'
'The only thing that will stop that is a military coup in Baghdad or war in North Korea,' said Pike, who predicted a rapid buildup of U.S. troop deployments in the Persian Gulf region at the end of January followed by 'a rapid war.'
'It could turn out to be over very quickly,' he said.
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