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Guardsmen Serve on Remote Posts
Throughout Coastal Empire

By Master Sgt. Bob Haskell
National Guard Bureau

ST. SIMONS ISLAND , Ga. – There is something different about this security detail for most of the National Guard Soldiers and Airmen who are taking part in this week’s annual Group of Eight Summit.

Georgia Army Guard Staff Sgt. Robbie Hopkins is a case in point. He has not, nor will he, actually go to Sea Island . He will not see the place he is helping to keep secure.

That is the secluded, exclusive resort on the southern Georgia coast where President George Bush is hosting the leaders of the world’s seven other industrialized democracies and many other heads of state for three days of informal meetings.

Hopkins and other citizen-Soldiers from his Army Guard unit out of nearby Brunswick are on duty a few miles away at the Georgia Ports Authority complex on Colonel’s Island .

“It’s always a privilege to be called up for such a big event,” said Hopkins in his matter-of-fact Southern manner.         

But he is serving at a distance because Sea Island is off limits to everybody who does not reside there except for the dignitaries and their staffs and the security personnel who possess the proper credentials to be there.

If you’re Robbie Hopkins, you can’t just drive on over to see what all of the excitement’s about.

That is unusual considering that Guard members have gotten up close and personal to the venues at the last two Olympics held in this country – the Atlanta Summer Games in 1996 and the Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002.

And Guard troops who were pressed into duty there will never forget the horrible sights and smells of the smoldering Pentagon and the rubble of the World Trade Center after the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

But Hopkins takes this week’s somewhat detached duty in stride because he’s one of the Georgia National Guard’s old hands at this business and because he knows how to follow orders.

 He worked Georgia ’s devastating floods of 1994, he said, when he helped to retrieve caskets that were floating down overflowing rivers. He was on duty during the ‘96 Olympics. He pulled airport security duty in Albany , Ga. , for nine months after the terrorist attacks.

He had barely finished a vacation following a year of active duty as a medic in the Washington , D.C. , area when he got the call to help support the G8 Summit and to report the Tuesday after Memorial Day.

All of that military duty has made things challenging with his civilian job, acknowledged Hopkins who is a paramedic supervisor for Mitchell County Emergency Medical Services.

But there is also the satisfaction of doing a vital job for a historical event such as the G8 Summit, Hopkins observed.

“You may play a small part, but you’ve got to look at the big picture, and security plays a big role,” Hopkins said. “It’s especially critical since 9-11.”

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