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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Guardsmen to conduct urban training at Arcadia in April

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Carroll National Guard unit will train on urban military operations by holding a four-day exercise at Arcadia.

The purpose of the April 2-5 drill will be to gather intelligence, then search for and apprehend a suspected weapons dealer, according to Sgt. Mike Kots, readiness NCO for Alpha Company.

Citizens, law enforcement, media and other supporters will participate.

Troops will spend Thursday, April 2, staging at a forward operations base at Carroll. The next day company leaders will conduct reconnaissance and begin patrolling the streets of Arcadia to identify possible locations of the weapons dealer.

The primary phase will be done Saturday, April 4, when convoys will be deployed from Carroll to Arcadia. Pictures of the arms dealer will be shown in Arcadia, and soldiers will go door to door asking if residents have seen the suspect.

Soldiers will knock only at households that have agreed to participate in the drill, Kots noted.

"Once credible intelligence has been gathered," said Kots, "portions of the town will be road-blocked and more in-depth searches of homes and vehicles will be conducted in accordance with the residents' wishes.

"One of the techniques we use in today's political environment is cordon and knock," Kots explained. "We ask for the head of the household, get permission to search, then have them open doors and cupboards. The homeowner maintains control. We peer over their shoulder, and the soldier uses the homeowner's body language and position to protect him."

During this phase of the operation, troops will interact with residents and media while implementing crowd-control measures and possibly treating and evacuating injured persons.

The unit will use a Blackhawk helicopter for overhead command and control, and to simulate medevacs.

The drill will culminate in the apprehension of the suspected arms dealer.

Alpha Company will conduct a review of the drill on Sunday, April 5.

A meeting to give residents more information and accept volunteers will be held 7 p.m. Monday, March 2, in the Arcadia American Legion hall.

Kots said the exercise will replace Alpha Company's weekend drill for April.

"We have a lot of extended drills this coming year," he added.

In addition to surveillance, searching and apprehension, the exercise will also give the troops valuable experience in stability, support, patrol, traffic control, vehicle searches and other skills needed for deployment in an urban environment.

"This exercise will improve the real-life operational skills of the unit," said Kots. "And it will hopefully improve the public's understanding of military operations."

The pre-drill work with residents is as important at the drill itself.

"It will be important for us to gain the trust and confidence of the residents of Arcadia," said Kots. "We will need to identify individuals that are willing to assist us in training by allowing us to search their homes and vehicles and to participate in role-playing."

"We really want to get as much information out there as possible, because this operation could be pretty intrusive to the people of Arcadia."



Related Links

http://www.carrollspaper.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=7451&SectionID=1&SubSe ctionID=&S=1
 
Military Operations couched as Law enforcement is a bad idea. To whom would these troops be accountable?

The Governor. I agree that using the military for law enforcement is a bad idea, but I'm not so absolute when it comes to the National Guard.

When the Guard is, at the consent of the Governor, federalized and reporting to the President, the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits them from being used for domestic law enforcement. In their usual situation where they report to the Governor they *can* be used for for law enforcement. That's a good thing when we need to call up added resources to keep the peace during natural disasters and the like. On the other hand, I don't see much good coming from potentially using them as a matter of routine to roust out drug dealers.

This particular training exercise doesn't pass the smell test for me. Maybe I can be convinced otherwise.
 
This is not nearly as odd as you think. I'm not sure if the spin of the paper made it sound more LE than it is, but if they're training for in country stuff, this is pretty relevant. It also provides training faces that are new.

As far as drug interdiction goes, search for national guard counter drug. Its frequent, and is a good thing. What about the border missions in Arizona etc? That is a purely law enforcement role, but few complain. The NG is also activated for other missions. This year snow removal and flood management missions were common in the PNW. Natural Disasters have prompted the Governer to activate the National Guard to respond in other states as well.

Remember, there is a distinct difference between the NG and the RA. Also, I don't think I read anything about this becoming common practice in the United States. It is a terrific exercise for in country, and is completely voluntary. I wish more NG units would do this sort of training.
 
The Oregon Constitution also specifies that the National Guard will be in direct subordination to the people. I can't see how they would have them searching "the peoples" homes.
 

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