SACRAMENTO — When the lights went out in Los Angeles two weeks ago, one day after a purported Al Qaeda terrorist threat to the city, concern quickly spread to California National Guard headquarters here.
With more than 25% of its troops deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and the U.S. Gulf Coast, state National Guard leaders prepared to mobilize even more soldiers for law enforcement duties in California's largest city.
"We were postured to respond quickly if needed," said Col. David Baldwin, California National Guard operations director. There was no need, however, as the L.A. Department of Water and Power, which cited multiple errors and lack of communication as causes of the blackout, restored electricity to most of the city in less than two hours.
But the power break gave a brief scare to those who worry that the National Guard, already experiencing a decline in recruitment, risks losing its capacity for emergency service in a state prone to natural and man-made disasters.
"We can only spread our forces so thin without endangering the safety net," said Assemblyman Tom Umberg, (D-Anaheim), who is also a colonel in the Army Reserve.
"Until someone can predict earthquakes, fires and floods accurately," Umberg said, "the Guard is a critical element in the event of a state emergency."
In early August, Umberg and fellow Assemblyman Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara) asked California's state auditor to investigate whether the Guard has enough troops to meet state and federal demands.
State Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana), meanwhile, is conducting a budget subcommittee investigation of the Guard, including allegations that the state's Military Department has inflated the number of available troops. Dunn contends that the Guard ranks include "a significant number of ghost positions" listed by the department in order to obtain extra funding.
Dunn, who estimates that the Guard's troop strength is several thousand fewer than listed, plans hearings to probe this and other issues.
Concern among state officials increased after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast Aug. 29, resulting in the mobilizing of Guard units from all 50 states, including nearly 1,000 soldiers from California.
In fact, the critical role played by more than 55,000 Guard troops along the Gulf Coast underlines the dilemma faced by the Bush administration and California officials as they attempt to balance the extraordinary overseas demands on the state militias in Iraq and Afghanistan with their traditional role responding to domestic emergencies.
