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| Governor addresses "border volunteers": “I cannot say it enough, we value or citizen Soldiers here in |
Public Affairs Office
JOINT FORCES HEADQUATERS, ELLENWOOD, June 30, 2006, -- More than 400 Georgia National Guardsmen answered the call Friday to deploy to the 180-mile stretch of land that divides
The first 150 Soldiers selected deployed only 72 hours after Gov. Sonny Perdue and Maj. Gen. David B. Poythress,
They will be gone from four months to one year.
The Soldiers who volunteered to deploy will be carrying out in intelligence gathering missions, said Poythress. They will not be performing law enforcement duties, but rather assisting the New Mexico Guard. Border patrol personnel will handle all law enforcement duties.
Reasons for volunteering for the trip to America’s desert southwest varied: “I volunteered to go,” said Pfc. Bashir Lateef, a light-wheeled vehicle mechanic with Headquarters Company, 221st Military Intelligence Battalion stationed at Fort Gillem, “because it’s what I signed up to do,”.
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| Specialist Andrea Randall, a supply specialist for the 170th Military Police Battalion, receives her hepatitis A vaccine from Sgt. Cathy Libby (not pictured) as Randall in-processes for the deployment to |
Lateef and the other volunteers spent the Thursday day making sure their life insurance, medical and personnel records were in order. They were also medically screened to make sure they didn’t need any shots before they left.
“I just wanted to go and help out,” said Spc. Andrea Randall, a supply specialist with Decatur’s 170th Military Police Battalion. “I mean it’s a great opportunity to provide my job skill to the mission.”
While many of those who volunteered haven’t deployed to
Specialist Leanard Marshall returned from
“I have been a Soldier for a long time, it’s my job,” said this father of five children. “My people understand that this is what I must do as a Soldier, and they know I’ll be just as anxious to get back to them again as I was when I went to Iraq.
Specialist Bobby Couch is just like Marshall. Couch volunteered to deploy with Company B, 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry, when it went to Iraq for a year.
“Things need to be done,” said Couch said. “You just go do it, and I try to do the right thing.
“The border is where we’ve been told we’re needed, so that’s where we need to be.”
As the 150 went from one Soldier Readiness Processing station to the next at the Joint Forces drill hall Thursday, Governor Perdue, Poythress at his side, praised the Georgia Guard and cited the
border control issue as an example of Guard members’ willingness to serve their nation.
“A nation cannot support immigration without control of its borders . . .The men and women you see here today have not been ordered to carry out this mission, rather they all volunteered for the mission,” Perdue reiterated. “This also goes to show that none of Georgia’s Guardsmen will shy away from any duty, and remember…many of them have recently returned from Iraq and I could not turn around and send them away from their families again.”
Perdue made it clear, any use of Georgia’s Citizen-Soldiers to assist in the nation’s border security mission, will not hurt emergency response by the Guard here at home.
“This will in no way diminish our ability to respond to a hurricane or other emergencies in our state,” Perdue assured the gathered media. “The National Guard has enough strength to be ready when call upon.”
Turning his attention to the Soldiers as they began moving to processing stations, Perdue added,
“We value all of you who responded to the call for volunteers,” he said with pride. “You have our gratitude and God speed.”
Before leaving the drill hall, Perdue added that, “This response by
150 Guard Volunteers 'Off To The Border'
