Alaska Gov. Michael Dunleavy today announced he will deploy close to 10 soldiers from the Alaska Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 207th Aviation Regiment to assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection along the U.S. southern border.
The deployment will begin on April 1, in support of aerial patrol operations on the Arizona/Mexico border. The request for National Guard volunteers came through the National Guard Bureau.
“Alaska stands ready in support of the President’s mission to secure the southern border. While this emergency may be thousands of miles away, we must be vigilant in our shared responsibility to address this crisis,” said Dunleavy. “I thank the numerous guardsman, and their families, for answering the call of duty and volunteering to serve in these important support roles.”
“The Alaska guardsmen who volunteered for this mission will provide air, reconnaissance and surveillance support, aviation operations support, maintenance of aircraft, and logistical support in partnership with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” said Brigadier Gen. Torrence Saxe.
“We will do our part to ensure all our guardsman are properly trained to fulfil this mission and that their families are supported in their absence. The Alaska National Guard is Always Ready, Always There, and is proud to support the state and nation when called upon.”
Guard members serving in their regular status fall under their state’s governor as commander-in-chief, which is also the case when they are activated to serve domestically in response to disasters, emergency response and other homeland missions. Alaska’s support for this request is not expected to impact any scheduled local training, deployments or domestic operations commitments, including fire suppression operations. Furthermore, deployment to the U.S. Southern border will be paid for by the federal government.
Helicopter pilots, crew chiefs, aircraft maintainers and support personnel will fill the six-month requirement, and may be swapped out in cycles with other Alaska Army Guard Soldiers. They will fly and maintain aircraft in Arizona that belong to other states’ Guard units.
This is the first deployment of the Alaska National Guard to support the current border security mission.
However, the Alaska Army National Guard previously supported border security operations under other presidential administrations.
Last month, Gov. Dunleavy announced last that he stood ready to support President Trump’s mission to secure the U.S.-Mexico border if Alaska’s National Guard troops were called upon to assist the federal government’s Department of Homeland Security border security mission there.
Godspeed!
An appropriate symbolic gesture on national unity to president Trump by Alaskan Governor Mike Dunleavy.
Personally, I think we might want to consider watching our border with Canada.
Their government has embraced reunification of ISIS soldiers into their population.
Why go hundreds of miles to the south through a well guarded border to reach the U.S., when you can head a few miles to the west through a wide open one?
Uncomfortable fact, but true:
https://globalnews.ca/news/3871229/canada-concerned-returning-isis-fighters-justin-trudeau/
scared much? Dunleavy is ready to support a made up crisis by a made up president. Some people will buy anything. and Canada?… sheesh
There absolutely is a crisis, please read – https://www.factcheck.org/2018/06/illegal-immigration-statistics/
The lowest amount of monthly apprehensions is 25,000, most monthly apprehensions are far in excess of this amount. Keep in mind, these are only the people who are being caught, while tens of thousands slip passed immigration and customs enforcement each month.
This has been going on for so long, you accept this as normal, but it is in fact, a crisis. Its too bad Trump has such a bad reputation, because he is absolutely right about this. Its been a problem for several decades.
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