National Guard gears up Nevada recruiting efforts

Monday, March 6, 2000 | 10:08 a.m.

Want a part-time job as a wire and cable lineman? How about hauling fuel? Maybe even a gig as a marching band member?

Over the next three years the Nevada Army National Guard will be adding about 450 Southern Nevadans to its ranks and teaching them such skills.

Recruiting for the first of those jobs -- 208 in the field of wire and cable -- begin this week with a ceremony announcing the creation of the 440th Signal Company.

An event planned at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Clark County Armory, 6400 Range Road, is designed to introduce the new unit to local civic leaders and provide the Las Vegas community with an understanding of its mission and available positions.

"Right now the unit exists only on paper," said Col. Joseph Rooney, director of training operations for the Nevada National Guard. "It is part of what will be about 450 new positions through 2003."

Another 200-plus positions will make up a petroleum hauling unit and another 40 positions will be for a band -- half from Northern Nevada, half from Southern Nevada.

The additional positions in Las Vegas are needed because of the booming growth in Southern Nevada and the interest among members of the population to join the Guard, Rooney said.

The new unit comes on the heels of years of cutbacks in the military. In fact, the Las Vegas unit became possible only after Defense Secretary William Cohen last December deferred plans to cut another 25,000 people from the Army National Guard and Reserve, Jack Hooper, spokesman for the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C., said.

The 1997 Quadrennial Defense Review had recommended reserve cuts of up to 45,000 members. Reductions of 17,000 in the Army National Guard and 3,000 in the Army Reserve were made, Hooper said.

Pentagon officials decided to end the cuts there for three reasons, Charles Cragin, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, said.

The 440th Signal Company should be activated later this year, possibly by September, Lt. Col. Marcy Gower of Las Vegas said.

"They will go to seven weeks of training at Fort Gordon, Ga., and when they are done they will be able to work as linemen, splicers and installers," she said. "They also will be able to go to work right away at commercial firms like phone companies."

Once trained, new Guard members must serve one weekend a month and two weeks during the year.

The new signal unit will provide military garrison buildings with telephone service, from poles to phones.

Its members also will be trained in satellite, microwave and cellular phone services to provide video teleconferencing to battalions, Internet access to companies and e-mail availability to troops in the field.

"There are a lot of wonderful opportunities here in Southern Nevada," Gower said.