98155. Guard, Reserve To Take On New Role
By Paul Stone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON -- Army Brig. Gen. Roger Schultz is both
clear and direct when he talks about the potential for
attacks with weapons of mass destruction: "We don't know
when and we don't know the place, but we will be attacked."
Schultz is the deputy for the Director of Military
Support, a DoD agency that coordinates military assistance
to states and local governments in times of disaster. As
such, he is a key player in the program Defense Secretary
William Cohen recently unveiled to integrate National Guard
and Reserve forces in responding to attacks with weapons of
mass destruction.
Under the program, National Guard and Reserve forces
will be trained to help states and local governments respond
to nuclear, biological and chemical attacks against their
communities.
Ten Rapid Assessment and Initial Detection elements
will be trained and equipped beginning in fiscal 1999 to
respond to a variety of scenarios, including terrorist
bombings. Each element will have 22 full-time National Guard
soldiers and airmen capable of deploying to an incident
within four hours. The teams will be supported by
reconnaissance and decontamination teams drawn from existing
reserve component forces.
In the case of an attack, RAID elements would work with
federal, state and local authorities to assess conditions,
detect contaminants and lend technical advice to local
authorities. They also would facilitate the arrival of DoD
or other federal agency assets.
Schultz is both excited and anxious to get the program
off the ground -- excited because he believes the program
will help the reserve components achieve greater integration
with the Total Force; and anxious because he sees a nation
and citizenry not fully prepared for attacks.
Integration takes place in several ways, Schultz
explained. "This is not simply about adding another
responsibility to Guard and Reserve soldiers and building
them into a unit," he said. "It's also about exercising with
state and community 'first responders' and exercising with
federal government partners around the nation. It's
integrating the Guard and Reserve into the response
community's capabilities in such a way we create a habitual
relationship."
The plan also fuses Guard and Reserve forces with the
larger DoD effort.
"The task we're going to be training Guard and Reserve
soldiers and airmen on is related to our warfighting. We're
not just investing in a domestic response; we're investing
in a commander in chief's requirement to go to war," Schultz
said. "If we respond to a domestic incident, that's one
capability. Responding to a theater outside the continental
United States is another. They're all DoD capabilities. And
that's the bonus of this DoD investment."
The plan blends initiatives from several fronts.
Presidential Directive 39 directed government agencies to
begin preparing for terrorist attacks, while the Defense
Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 1996 required
immediate action to improve response capabilities at
federal, state and community levels. Schultz said the plan
also responds to Cohen's 1997 Defense Reform Initiative
emphasis on effective and efficient use of resources and his
Sept. 4, 1997, memo on active and reserve component
integration.
Schultz said he hopes the program will help educate the
American public about its vulnerability to chemical,
biological and nuclear attack. During the past five years,
he said, at least 11 states, as well as foreign nations,
have experienced terrorism. Some of the most widely
publicized incidents were the 1993 World Trade Center
bombing in New York, the 1995 chemical attack on a Tokyo
subway, the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building in Oklahoma City, and the Centennial Park bombing
in Atlanta at the 1996 Olympics.
Despite these incidents, Schultz said, he believes
Americans maintain a false sense of security.
"We are used to fighting wars in foreign theaters, but
we're not used to it on our own soil," he said. "So when we
begin discussing threats in our own country, it's difficult
for people to think in those terms because they haven't been
exposed to it."
What Americans don't always appreciate, he said, is the
freedoms they enjoy also make them vulnerable to attack,
especially when combined with current technology and the
availability of raw materials. With this program, he said,
Americans may better understand the threat and come to
appreciate the term "homeland defense."
"Homeland defense is going to take on quite a different
meaning for us," Schultz said. "It will include preparing
for weapons of mass destruction as a minimum. It will
include not just domestic preparedness, but installation
preparedness and our ability to protect our power and
continuity of government. All this comes together in the
plan in the next few years."
Schultz said the Guard and Reserve are not ready for
this new responsibility today, but will be in a few years.
Calling the new mission a natural extension of the role the
Guard and Reserve now play in responding to disasters such
as floods, hurricanes and blizzards, he said what's missing
is the proper training and equipment.
That situation will turn around in the next few years,
he said, pointing to the president's fiscal 1999 budget
request for $49.2 million for personnel costs, patient
decontamination and reconnaissance training, medical
training for operating in contaminated areas, and for
establishing a Consequence Management Program Integration
Office.
Funds will also pay for training exercises with
federal, state and local disaster response teams and to
upgrade simulation systems for tabletop exercises.
"This is a totally integrated effort," Schultz
emphasized. "It took a lot of study. We've identified the
needs, and the major initiatives are in place. Now it's time
to move on with the plan, and that's what we're doing."
##end##
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