As California burns, where is the CA. National Guard?

[babylonsister]

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/10/23/18455579.php

As California burns, where is the CA. National Guard?
by Dan Bacher
Tuesday Oct 23rd, 2007 5:56 PM

At a time when southern California is a blazing inferno, this action alert from Bill Lackemacher of Sacramento for Democracy urges Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to bring the California National Guard back home from Iraq.


As CA burns, where is the CA National Guard?

by Bill Lackemacher, Sacramento for Democracy

As Southern CA goes up in flames, where is the CA National Guard? According to CNN, there are only 1,500 CA National Guardsmen fighting these fires. Where are the rest of our National Guardsmen, and why are they not helping to fight these fires? Are they in Iraq? If so, how many are still in California?

To the best of my knowledge, there are about 20,000 CA Army National Guardsmen. When I called their office, I couldn't get a straight answer about how many CA Air National Guardsmen there are. I'm not sure why they won't tell me. They wanted to know who I was and why I wanted to know how many there were. What are they hiding?

We all know that our guardsmen are in Iraq protecting Halliburton and the Multi-national Oil Corporations. I think it's well past time to tell our Governor to Bring Our CA National Guard Home! Please call the governor's office and tell him that we want our Guard Home Now to protect our great state!

Call Governor Schwarzenegger today!! 916-445-2841 (Press 1 for English, then 5 for "Hot topic issues", then 0 to speak to someone)
http://gov.ca.gov/interact#email

I believe it is due time that we revive Loni Hancock's, AJR 36, to bring our CA National Guard home!
Add Your Comments

[MADem]

1. They're in Iraq, and one of that state's reps is on the hot seat for so saying!! nt

[Zywiec]

2. Under what authority would the governor be able to call them back?

They belong to the US Governement now and not the state.

[Whoa_Nelly]

3. Just for the record: The numbers being sent to aid in CA and within CA

Posted AP 14 hours ago:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iPgeKV1MNnfp20B9VcqMVqmSiSBQ

Feds Send Fire Aid to California

By The Associated Press – 14 hours ago

Efforts by federal agencies to assist Southern California officials struggling with devastating wildfires.

NATIONAL INTERAGENCY FIRE CENTER

More than 2,000 members of the interagency wildland firefighting community have been mobilized. The following resources have been deployed:

_One area command team (five people per team) to provide communication and coordination assistance for several fires.

_Four type-one incident management teams (20 people per team) to establish an effective firefighting organization and develop the tactics and strategies for containment.

_31 crews, including 25 elite firefighter hot shot crews specially trained to handle difficult and extreme incidents.

_90 fire engines with support from 22 strike teams (110 people total for strike teams) to work directly on fire lines.

_11 water tenders, which support the fire and aviation activities.

_11 heavy air tankers to support the ground firefighters in attacking fires.

_14 medium and heavy helicopters to assist the ground firefighters with strategic pinpoint drops on identified areas of the fire.

_Six bulldozers to establish the line to halt further spread of the fire.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

_About 100 defense employees, including active duty military personnel and civilians, are fighting fires. That's 12 firefighting teams — mostly civilian — and their 12 fire engines.

_Some 1,500 Army National Guard and Air National Guardsmen are helping firefighters — not on the fire lines, but doing other tasks to free up the firefighters.

_550 Marine Corps personnel at Camp Pendleton, Calif., are preparing for possible firefighting duty.

_Another 17,301 National Guardsmen are available in California, if needed.

_Six C-130 aircraft fitted with firefighting systems are being sent to Point Mugu, Calif. Two are from the Air Force Reserve at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., and four are from the Air National Guard in Wyoming and North Carolina. They were to arrive in California in time to begin flying missions Wednesday morning.

_11 Pentagon helicopters equipped with water buckets are available to help in fire suppression.

_Local military bases, under emergency assistance authority, provided some 10,000 cots to local evacuation sites.

FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY

_FEMA has established a distribution center in Northern California with water, meals, cots and blankets.

_The agency has sent a liaison to the state emergency operations center to collect information on the fires and filter state requests for resources.

[Kajsa]

10. OK, this one I don't get,

"FEMA has established a distribution center in Northern California with water, meals, cots and blankets."

Aren't the fires down here, in SoCal?

What am I missing?

[IronLionZion]

36. the displaced people headed north nt

[spanone]

13. i heard them say they were bringing in 800 guardsmen from the mexican border

[kestrel91316]

25. Another 17,301 National Guardsmen are available in California, if needed

Well, listen up folks - THEY'RE NEEDED. And it's up to dumbass Ahnuld to call them up. He's too busy complaining about his buddy Bush so he can look like he's actually on our side.

[Whoa_Nelly]

4. Oops--double post due to Internet slowocity

:yoiks:

[tekisui]

5. The National Guards of most states are deployed in Iraq.

Along with their equipment. My grandfather, a WWII vet, was appalled when Guardsmen were sent to Iraq, he didn't' understand how it could happen or how it could be legal.

[Zywiec]

8. You may want to read up on the National Guard

http://www.ngb.army.mil/About/default.aspx

They've been activated or deployed for all the major military engagements since WWII.

[tekisui]

12. I stand corrected.

Maybe my grandfather was speaking of a war of aggresion?

[dflprincess]

28. Not so much during Vietnam

which is why there were waiting lists for most Guard units - it was a legal way to evade being sent over there.

From the link Zywiec posted, regarding Vietnam http://www.ngb.army.mil/About/default.aspx

During the Vietnam War, no massive call-ups of National Guard and Reserve units were made to raise military manpower. However, on January 25, 1968, a limited number of Air Guard units were ordered to active duty following the seizure of the U.S.S. Pueblo by the North Koreans. The communists' Tet Offensive in South Vietnam during February 1968 led to another limited mobilization of Army and Air Guard units in March 1968. Of the more than 22,000 Army and Air Guardsmen mobilized following the Tet offensive, nearly 9,000 served in Vietnam. Thousands more served as volunteers in the war zone.

[eleny]

6. CNN just said that they're guarding the border

And they were being brought up to help with the fires.

[Bitwit1234]

7. The Pentagon said they didn't need any more help

Remember when there was a disaster of a tornado in one of the midwest states that had a democrat as governor. She said they needed the guard. And the republicans started a campaign slamming and smearing her, because she said their equipment was in Iraq.

Now California says the same thing. So I was just thinking about this. Every time you turn around bush is asking for money for Iraq...they need this they need that...but if they have all the equipment he took from the states to use overseas, why in the hell do they need that money for equipment. I know equipment needs to be replaced but bush acts like they have nothing.

[Noonecares]

9. They cant fight fire

by shooting at it with M-16s.

[babylonsister]

11. What did they do before Iraq? Can they haul buckets of water, can

they patrol, can they hand out water? Stand-by, because if this gets much worse, Californians will have Blackwater to deal with.

[slackmaster]

17. Aw come on, babylonsister, we have plenty of people power without Blackwater

The body of the people otherwise known as the unorganized militia is working in high gear here, and our county government has done a pretty good job of keeping things in order.

[babylonsister]

21. I'm not denegrating CA, and this is a somewhat controlled destruction,

unlike Katrina. I'm just saying, if patrols are eventually needed and the NG isn't available, who will they call? Think about it. We can hope the bile the name Blackwater raises will encourage other solutions.

[slackmaster]

26. The Governor can conscript every able-bodied person if needed

It's in our Military and Veterans Code. There is no need for paid armed goons here.

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=mvc&codebody=&hits=20

Short of a situation in which Arnold becomes our leader, people around here do a pretty good job of taking care of themselves and each other. Many of us are well-prepared for disasters because of the constant threat of earthquake.

[starroute]

33. Then why did Schwarzenegger meet with Blackwater last year?

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=108242&ran=18183

July 28, 2006

Hurricane Katrina's $73 million purse has persuaded Blackwater officials to position themselves as the go-to guys for natural disasters. Operating licenses are being applied for in every coastal state of the country. Governors are being given the pitch, including California's Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom a Blackwater official recently visited to discuss earthquake response.

"We want to make sure they're aware of who we are and what we can bring to the table," said Seamus Flatley, deputy director of Blackwater's new domestic operations division. "We want to get out ahead of it."

[slackmaster]

37. Sounds like he went to hear a sales pitch

:shrug:

[slackmaster]

15. A bit ignorant today, are we?

You should read up and learn about what the NG is all about.

[nadinbrzezinski]

35. Ok, here are some things that NG personnel does in natural disasters

Drive heavy equipment,,, yes that is done to create fire breaks

Some crews are trained in BASIC firefighting and can be used to stamp out hot spots

Fly aircraft, such as C-130

Those M-16 totting troops who are trained as MPs can provide security against looters... and sans M-16s help with shelters

Medical personnel can help in asisting evacuees

And I could go on

You have no clue of what it does, do you?

[slackmaster]

14. The California NG is not all in Iraq, people

Some of them are directing and enforcing evacuations. They're also at Qualcomm Stadium and the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

US Army and Marines are also helping out.

[babylonsister]

19. That's a fact, but too many of them are, when they should be at

home for emergencies. And you bet, as many troops as possible who are in the US will be made available for this devastation so this admin doesn't appear to make the same mistakes made in New Orleans and environs.
I'm just saying, there are too many NG not available to do the jobs they were really hired to do before this illegal occupation started.

[slackmaster]

22. The only thing we may have a shortage of here is firefighters

We do NOT need bumbling feds or George W. Bush getting underfoot here.

[Igel]

29. Let's see ...

maybe 1500 being used.

abot 5k deployed to Iraq, maybe 6k

17k left undeployed. And that's just in California.

Consider the other NGs available, undeployed DOD folk in California, and you start getting large numbers. Then add in DOD folk not in California and in the US. And you start getting to very large numbers. In any event, NG issues are in-state and state-to-state. Schwarzenegger will use his own NG troops, and if he needs more will clear it with the DOD and then requisition them from other states. He might even requisition that Perry send some. Who knows?

Not every military person will be used. It is not the case that every person evacuated will need a personal military attache.

[Beelzebud]

16. Getting their heads blown off for the amusment of the president.

And no I won't fucking apologize, because here in reality, it's the god damned truth.

[Cha]

18. Sooner or Later as we knew the Giant

Shit is going to Hit the Giant Fan and the bushits dirty War On Iraq is going to Explode in every American's face. It was written on the fucking wall the second the bushits ordered the first bomb to hit Baghdad. Anyone could have seen that if they didn't have the Koolaid up past their fucking eyeballs.

We had a National Guard for a reason and it wasn't for going to a country with OIL and securing for the bushits own fucking amusement.

[EFerrari]

20. Amy reports today that half of their equipment is in Iraq. n/t

[babylonsister]

23. Yes, I heard that last night. Great planning. Now we know why so

many governors were so concerned about the lack of the NG and their equipment in their states.

[EFerrari]

24. Meanwhile, the war profiteers are making money hand over fist

and some of them are based in California. It's crazy.

[suffragette]

27. Barbara Boxer and John Garamendi are both talking about the

lack of NG's equipment since much is in Iraq.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/24/1525214
Lt. Gov., Sen. Boxer: Iraq War Hindering Relief Effort
A top California official has criticized President Bush’s visit and called on him to order California National Guard out of Iraq to help out in their home state. Speaking on MSNBC, California Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi said Bush’s visit would distract from the relief effort. He said: ‘What we really need are those firefighters, we need the equipment. We need frankly -- we need our troops back from Iraq.” His comments come as California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer said the California National Guard is operating with just the half the equipment it needs because of the war in Iraq.

Good points from both of them. And it looks like the smears are starting, just as they did when Governor Sebelius raised the same question.

[suffragette]

30. And from those on the ground

Most blistering in his critique was the head of Orange County's fire authority, who said a quick deployment of aircraft could have corralled the massive blaze his crews were fighting near heavily populated Irvine.

"It is an absolute fact, had we had more air resources we would have been able to control this fire," Chief Chip Prather told reporters.

~snip~

Helicopter orders placed Sunday shortly after a fire erupted near the U.S.-Mexico border weren't satisfied until early Tuesday, said Steve Heil, a state commander at the Harris Fire. That's when four National Guard Blackhawk helicopters based at Los Alamitos arrived in San Diego.

~snip~

On the upside, Heil said military C-130 jets outfitted to fight fires would arrive late Tuesday or Wednesday, rather than on Thursday as he was initially told.

From http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/10/23/state/n191836D94.DTL

oopsy, edited to add link

[C_U_L8R]

31. If you say they are in Iraq...

Joe Scarborough is gonna demand you apologize.

Apologize for what? Who knows. Who cares.
But Joe is gonna whine and whine and whine.
What an ass.

[BrklynLib at work]

32. Bush reminds me more and more of Nero..fiddling while Rome burned.

Now it is literally as well as figuratively.

[Generator]

34. You didn't get the memo?

Iraq is the 51st state. George Bush is president of Iraq. All our future wealth goes to keep it. That includes of course the NATIONAL guard.

Should I write a thank you note to Congress?

[tjwash]

38. We did get 1500 NG Troops.

Duncan "shit for brains" Hunter actually said that we didn't need any more.