Homeland defense at Oxnard Airport includes a Humvee bouncing along a dirt road next to the runway, from which California Army National Guard 1st Lt. Cregg Hill and Sgt. Luis Lopez, clad in battle fatigues, watch for terrorists.
As part of the military presence at one of Southern California's smaller airports, Hill, 39, and Lopez, 29, were still settling into a recently expanded role in protecting air travelers last week when they learned that they likely will be hunkered down for a long tour of duty.
While most Americans were cheering news of dramatic allied military gains in Afghanistan, Hill was thinking about the aviation security bill signed Monday by President Bush, which authorizes the hiring and training of 28,000 federal employees to take over airport security.
"I hear it might be a year before they get all the people hired and trained," Hill said.
The National Guardsmen were originally deployed in mid-October to assist in passenger and baggage screening, in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
That mission was expanded this month when Gov. Gray Davis ordered them to assist in patrolling the terminals and parking areas as well as the acreage surrounding runways at California airports.
In Oxnard, the mandate has resulted in regular patrols along the 3 1/2 miles of fence surrounding the 216-acre airport, where guardsmen perform a variety of tasks, including helping to round up stray dogs on the runway.
Oxnard Airport serves about 200 passengers a day, compared with about 175,000 who passed through Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday, one of the busiest days of the year.
Hill, commanding officer of the Oxnard Airport patrol detail from National Guard Battery D 144th Field Artillery, scanned the fences separating the 5,950-foot runway from a row of tract houses, one of which has a giant American flag stretched across its roof.
He acknowledged that his rifle-carrying soldiers had so far seized nothing more menacing than nail clippers at the baggage screening checkpoint. But, he said, "You never know where terrorists will strike again."
Which means that soldiers like Cpl. Refugio Pitones, 29, one of about 500 National Guard members patrolling 15 airports in the southern half of the state, can look forward to plenty of vital--albeit dull--work.
