National Guard call-ups create worries at home

Jace Radke

Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2003 | 11:11 a.m.

The activation of 23 percent of Nevada's National Guard troops and reservists -- and the strong possibility that even more will be called up in connection with a war against Iraq -- could leave the state shorthanded when wildfire season flares up this spring.

About 950 of Nevada's approximately 4,000 troops have been activated, including more than 450 Guard members. Nevada is tied with several other states for the fifth highest percentage of activated reservists.

The possibility of not being able to rely as heavily on Guard forces for fires, natural disasters and homeland security is simply something that states will have to adjust to, said Greg Bortolin, spokesman for Gov. Kenny Guinn.

"Right now there's an immediate national crisis, and that's the reason we have the focus of the National Guard and reserves," Bortolin said. "The Guard benefits Nevada in many ways, but national security is the No. 1 priority.

"Nevada and the other states will just have to deal with the situation."

The activations are a concern for fire officials who are expecting a busier than normal wildfire season across the West, said Venetia Gemplery, a spokeswoman with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

"We're very aware that the National Guard may not be available," Gemplery said. "We have agreements with Canada, Australia and New Zealand to assist each other with fires, and we've also called in the military in the past, but that may not be an option this year."

Last year 600 regular Army troops assisted in containing three fires in Oregon that merged into the nation's largest blaze at 500,000 acres. In Nevada, Air National Guard helicopters were used to drop retardant on fires, and Guard C-130 aircraft were used to provide imaging of fire areas so that fire bosses could determine how best to deploy their firefighters.

The 2002 wildfire season was the second worst in the last 10 years with more than 7.1 million acres burned. Lower than normal precipitation in the West this winter means higher burn totals are expected when fire season gets under way in April and May, Nevada State Forester Steve Robinson said.

"Last year we only had about 90,000 acres burn in Nevada, but our resources were stretched to other states, so we still relied on help from the National Guard," Robinson said.

"We met with the National Guard last week and they said they had eight Chinook helicopters in the state, but how long those helicopters and the pilots to fly them will be here is anyone's guess."

National Guard helicopters could become even more important to firefighting efforts, with about half of the country's fleet of firefighting C-130s grounded after one crashed while dropping fire retardant near the Nevada-California border last summer. The three crew members on the plane died in the crash.

"We are here to support the state in firefighting, and anything else that needs to be done, but if we're called by the president (in the event of a war) we have to go," Nevada National Guard spokeswoman April Conway said.

Guard members and reservists called up from Nevada are serving in many capacities, and some have been deployed to Southwest Asia.

Nationwide, 16 percent of all reservists and Guard members had been called to active duty by the Pentagon as of Feb. 12, according to a Gannett News Service analysis of military data.

South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, whose state has seen about 1,000 reservists and Guard members called to duty, said that it's a difficult situation.

"It's a burden anytime you have to send somebody off to war," Rounds said. "It impacts almost every single family in our state. There are very few people who don't know somebody who's on active duty."

Aware of the possible burdens the call-ups place on state officials, Pentagon planners do pay attention to the number of people called up from each state, said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Dan Stoneking.

"We're certainly not going and saying, 'Well, let's take all the assets from a certain state,' " he said. "We're one country."

While officials say they are confident that the mobilization won't leave citizens unprotected, they have had to keep the Pentagon call-ups in mind as they put together their own contingency plans.

"All we can do is grin and bear it," California Gov. Gray Davis said.

In California, only 13 percent of reservists and Guard members have been activated, but Davis said aides have been keeping an eye on the mobilizations as they prepare for possible emergencies at home. For example, the state has had to keep the numbers of available Guard troops in mind as officials respond to the nationwide "code orange" terrorist alert.