National Guard U S

The war against terrorism means fewer National Guard troops may be available to fight wildfires in the drought-stricken Pacific Northwest this summer, state and Defense Department officials say. National Guard troops help during major wildfires, but nearly 60% of Montana's troops are in Iraq, all the Oregon National Guard's Chinook helicopters are in Afghanistan, and 40% of Idaho's 4,300 troops are deployed overseas, state officials say. Montana Gov.

WASHINGTON -- The National Guard general who just completed a seven-month tour as head of the security detail for detainees at the U.S. Naval Base on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has suddenly found himself without a job at his Rhode Island National Guard headquarters as well. Brig. Gen. Rick Baccus was told that he is being relieved of National Guard duties because he failed to keep his state supervisors up to date on personnel matters and other events while in Cuba, Guard officials said Tuesday.

Military police from the North Carolina National Guard returned home Saturday, seven months after they began guarding Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan. About 250 loved ones gathered at the Army post awaiting the return of members of the 211th Military Police Company. No one knew exactly when the unit would return to U.S. soil. A hoped-for July return was postponed until August, then September. The unit has been given two weeks' leave before it has to return to duty at Ft. Bragg.

Two men who allegedly planned to carry out bomb attacks on power stations and a National Guard armory in South Florida were charged with conspiracy to damage and destroy property with explosives. The defendants, Pakistani Imran Mandhai, 19, and Shueyb Mossa Jokhan, a 24-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, appeared before a federal magistrate, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami said.

A National Guard helicopter on a U.S. Border Patrol mission crashed into Otay Mountain on Tuesday, injuring five agents and four guardsmen. The cause of the crash, which occurred about 20 miles east of San Diego, has not been determined. The helicopter was ferrying agents to a remote area near the U.S.-Mexico border for an afternoon foot patrol. The National Guard has been assisting Border Patrol operations since the summer, providing transport, surveillance and other support.

John Hanson, a city building inspector in Northern California, already served one tour in Iraq with his National Guard unit. If called, he said he is prepared to go back: "But I'm not going to lie and say I'm happy about it." Francis Shaw, a Long Beach medical technician, worries about the toll another deployment would take on his family, his civilian job and his 55-year-old body.

The U.S. Army has reopened its investigation into the disappearance last year of a California National Guard soldier trained in Los Alamitos and assigned to Germany as part of the peacekeeping effort in Bosnia, officials said Thursday. The new probe was ordered after Army officials found that the initial investigation into the disappearance of Spec. Mason Jacques Karl O'Neal was mishandled, military sources in Washington said. National Guard spokesman Lt. Col.

Despite some misgivings, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday he would send 1,000 National Guard troops to the Mexican border as part of President Bush's plan to curb illegal immigration. Schwarzenegger said the mission would begin July 15 and end no later than Dec. 31, 2008 -- a deadline, he said, that ensures the Guard won't be locked into an open-ended commitment.

The first 55 National Guard troops sent under President Bush's plan to assist immigration agents were to start work today on extending fences, improving gravel roads and working on border lighting near San Luis, which is part of the nation's busiest U.S. Border Patrol station.

National Guard troops and state police will patrol New Orleans through December, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said at a summit of law enforcement officials and crime experts called to address a spate of killings marring the recovery from Hurricane Katrina.