National Guard told to re-emphasize mission of quick response
by Master Sgt. Bob Haskell
ARLINGTON, Va., (Army News Service, March 2, 1998) -- Two hours. One hundred-twenty minutes.
That's the new standard, and the challenge, for responding to the modern threat to the homeland that was presented to the leaders of America's Minutemen in Arlington, Va., during the final days of January.
Reacting to the impact of a chemical, biological or nuclear weapon of mass destruction on two hours notice anywhere in the country was the sobering mission considered by 500 Army National Guard leaders, including 116 generals, during the 1998 Senior Leadership Conference.
It was held across the Potomac River from one of the potential targets -- the nation's capital -- that could appeal to terrorists in the mold of Oklahoma City murderer Timothy McVeigh or convicted unabomber Theodore Kaczynski.
"Based on surveys with first responders, the task for first military responders is to be on the scene in less than two hours," charged Iowa Army Guard Brig. Gen. Roger Schultz who is the Deputy Director of Military Support.
National Guard members are beginning to train many of those first responders, including local firefighters and emergency medical personnel. They are also gearing up to get to the scene as fast as possible to assess the cause of the problem and the risk to others, Schultz told the attentive crowd.
Congress has given the National Guard Bureau $10 million this year to develop fully-coordinated response plans with the Department of Defense and other federal agencies.
Another $49.2 million has been earmarked for 1999 to, among other things, include reserve component units in the response plans and begin forming prototype rapid detection teams in 10 states.
"We have to start training and equipping the Guard's first responders -- such as our chemical units -- just as well as other first responders are being prepared," Schultz cautioned.
At 52, Schultz is a Vietnam veteran with the Silver Star who is in a unique position to speak for the Department of Defense. He is the first National Guard general to serve as Deputy Director of Military Support ), a job that has been designated for the Guard, Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. John Hamre announced in December.
"The Director of Military Support is our 911 service for communities facing natural or manmade disasters," Hamre explained. "And when communities call DOMS for help, DOMS calls the Guard."
Be ready for that call, the Army's Vice Chief of Staff urged the Guard audience of adjutants general, division and brigade commanders and sergeants major.
"You've got to be able to respond quickly," emphasized Gen. William Crouch during his keynote address.
"There is a threat now where potential adversaries or an adversary with not many resources has the capability, and has demonstrated it, to unhinge us before we get to the theater," Crouch observed. The Guard is unique, he added, because "you are postured, you are positioned, to confront it before anyone else, if that happens."
Being on call to deal with disasters is hardly a new mission, Lt. Gen. Edward Baca, Chief of the National Guard Bureau, pointed out. Furthermore, the National Defense Panel last year validated the Guard's responsibility for defending the homeland, he added.
"That's a mission that we in the National Guard have had for over 361 years. It is our primary mission," Baca said.
"Think in terms of the evolving threats in the 21st century -- nuclear, biological and chemical; threats from foreign as well as domestic sources," Baca charged. "Think in terms of the organization that is tailor-made to meet those threats. Think of the institution that literally blankets America, and you think in terms of what we are already doing to protect and defend in all those areas."
The assets include a new information management network that ties together the nation's 3,000 National Guard communities and, Baca projected, can feed information to law enforcement agencies and state and local officials.
"We are doing with electrons what the Eisenhower administration did in the 1950s with concrete," Baca said. "More than ever, now is not the time to be closing armories and cutting the Guard, but to be adding to it and making sure that we can perform our primary function."
Leadership may be the most important factor, indicated Col. Michael Squier, the Army Guard's new deputy director.
Other organizations, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Reserve, would also respond to any catastrophic emergency.
"You can't say we're not going to use every asset out there," Squier acknowledged. "It's important for us to put the infrastructure in place so that we're in charge."
The Army brass clearly wants the Guard ready to assume control, and Crouch admonished the citizen-soldiers' leaders to keep their house in order.
"A cohesive unit will win," maintained Crouch who commanded NATO's peacekeeping force in Bosnia before returning to the Pentagon. "One that is fragmented by prejudice or harassment will fall apart. We've all seen it happen.
"Discipline is a trained organization that does what's right in the absence of order," he told the roomful of Army Guard leaders. "One part of our disciplined, reliable and capable best Army in the world is right here."
(Editor's note: Haskell is with the National Guard Bureau in Arlington, Va.)
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