(FLASH) The Guard Is Not Guarding The Border
Yesterday, Chris Simcox closed a great article in Human Events with;
Will our soldiers be at the borders armed with only construction equipment and paper clips? Who will guard the National Guard? The Border Patrol? Doesn’t that defeat the stated purpose of sending the troops to the border in the first place? The American people deserve answers.
Polipundit readers know that I have concerns on the deployment of National Guard Soldiers to the border because their Annual Training period is being used for something other than collective combat training. Ultimately, I believe this “duty” will harm the readiness of the National Guard units. That however, is material for another post, but I can help Chris Simcox today.
We start two weeks ago where The El Paso Times reported;
While state officials in Texas and New Mexico said this week that National Guard soldiers assigned to border duty would be armed, officials in California and Arizona said very few soldiers there would carry weapons.
Unfortunately, I must report that “Armed” does not always mean “armed” as most Americans would understand. There are various states of being “armed.” These are called “Arming Orders (AO)” which define where the weapon “is,” where the magazine “is,” where the bullets “are” and where the bayonet “is.” They start at Arming Order One which could best be described as a “show of force” or “window dressing” in the worse case.
After considerable searching, I was able to find a complete copy of the Memorundum of Understanding/Rules of Engagement pertaining to the National Guard Deployment (“Operation Jump Start”), which I could then review.
After reviewing the MOU/ROE, I contacted several senior “in the loop” National Guard Officers that I have previously served with, to determine how many soldiers would be “armed” and their Arming Order number. After confirming The El Paso Times article that “very few soldiers there would carry weapons,” I was advised that during the next 90 days, amongst the few soldiers that have weapons, no soldier will have an Arming Order greater than AO-1, which means that an M-16 will be on the shoulder, there will be no magazine in the weapon (thats where the bullets come from), and the magazines stored inside the “ammunition pouch” will in most cases have no ammunition, they will be empty.
It was also conveyed to myself that in the unlikely event that a soldier is ever harmed on the border, the Arming Order will not be raised. Every individual I spoke to envisions no circumstance where there will ever be soldiers at AO-3/4, where a magazine with ammunition would be immediately available. Instead the soldiers will simply be kept farther away from the border if needed. They will be deliberately kept out of harms way.
I know you are thinking (maybe screaming), “but Why?” The easy public relations answer is that a soldier could kill someone. The National Guard is going to ensure that there is not a repeat of the incident in which Esequiel Hernández was killed by a US Marine along the Border.
There are also numerous regulations pertaining to weapons. There is a requirement that a soldier must qualify with his weapon on an annual basis. Reasonably, you must be “qualified” with your weapon before you may carry a weapon. However, ranges for weapons qualification are extremely limited. National Guard soldiers normally perform their once a year required qualification when they go to Annual Training at Ft. Stewart, Ft. McCoy…… This year they are going to “the border” and unless there is a “regulation M-16 qualification range” down the road, they will not be able to get qualified. There is also the question of weapon storage and how do you prevent theft.
If you click the hyperlink above, and read the Rules of Engagement, you will see that they provide for the right of self defense, however the question that must be asked is “defense with what?”
Note to Lou Dobbs: When you go to the Border to do filming, do a close up on the M-16s where the magazine is inserted, it will go over real well with the American People.
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