U.S. issues an alert to 27,000 guard and reserve troops New York Times
December 14, 2002
By ERIC SCHMITTIn another sign of preparations for a possible war against Iraq, the Defense Department today ordered the Army and Navy to alert 27,000 National Guard and Reserve troops to prepare for duty, probably in the Persian Gulf region, military officials said.
The alert order is a preliminary but essential step before any reservists are formally summoned to active duty. Pentagon officials say that if Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approves an official mobilization order, he would probably not do so before Jan. 1.
Over the next several days, the Army and Navy will identify and alert specific units to ready their members' paperwork and inoculations.
About 1,000 naval reservists, including stevedores, port handlers, coastal patrol crews and medical personnel, would be notified, said a senior Navy official. Army reserve personnel would include military police, engineers and logistics specialists, Army officials said.
"This tells certain units to go through and make sure their housekeeping is in order," said Maj. Ben Owens, a Pentagon spokesman.
Reserve units typically require about 30 days to prepare their paperwork and muster, but Pentagon officials have been working hard to compress that time to give President Bush and his senior military advisers more flexibility.
As a result, many reserve units have gotten their affairs in order without any formal notification, giving them a head start on any official call-up.
The size and timing of any large-scale call-up for a war with Iraq depends heavily on the Iraqi response to the United Nations resolution requiring Baghdad to disarm, and the pace of international weapons inspections.
Today's alert order is likely to be just the first of many in the weeks to come, officials said.
But if Mr. Bush orders an attack against Iraq, the Pentagon has plans to summon to active duty as many as 265,000 members of the National Guard and Reserve. No decisions have been made on these mobilizations, and Mr. Rumsfeld has been pressing reserve officials to justify every call-up.
If mobilized, the reservists alerted as a result of today's order from the military's Joint Staff would be likely to deploy to the Persian Gulf region to help unload heavy equipment that continues to flow steadily into the area, military officials said.
But under the Pentagon's plan, tens of thousands of National Guard and Reserve troops would remain here in the United States, filling in for personnel who deploy to Europe or the Middle East, or providing security at military bases, power plants and oil refineries in this country.
Indeed, some 8,000 to 10,000 Army National Guard and Reserve members are expected to be mobilized in the next several days, largely to help fill a shortage of Air Force security personnel at Air Force bases in the United States.
In addition to Army National Guard and Reserve force, Navy and Coast Guard Reserves would patrol the nation's coastlines. Flying more combat patrols over American cities would require a sizable mobilization of Air National Guard pilots and crews.