On Call: Reserve and National Guard

CADETS (Marching):

Let it blow, let it blow.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

In just a few weeks, these cadets will be West Virginia state troopers.

CADETS:

Let it blow from east to west.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

But before graduation, at least four of them who are also in the National Guard may be called to active duty to fight a possible war with Iraq.

CADETS:

…That we are true.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

That is not good news for state police superintendent Howard Hill.

HOWARD HILL:

I'll use the bullet comment…

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

In the past year, 114 of his officers have retired, leaving him with half the number of troopers he needs. Another 58 regular troopers could also be called up, and that, he says, would be devastating to law enforcement.

HOWARD HILL:

I'm in bad shape. I have 58 percent of my detachments have two people or fewer. Thirty-two percent of my detachments have four people or fewer. If you'd look at that and try to work a 24-hour schedule or even a schedule, it's not possible.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

The manpower shortage is critical for West Virginia because in this rural mountainous state, many of the 55 counties have no law enforcement except the state police.

HOWARD HILL:

We do traffic, we do crime scene investigations, we do homicides, we do fraud, we do narcotics, we do it all. We are a one-shop service for the state of West Virginia, plus we also provide a forensic lab for the state of West Virginia, which also takes care of all law enforcement in the state of West Virginia.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Helicopter pilot Steve Owens and his bomb dog Kimba are part of that one-shop service.

STEVE OWENS:

With the pilot end of it, I go on call now I think once a month for about ten days a month, and that is in the evenings and all through the night. If we get someone who's lost, if we get a bad guy that runs, whatever a normal policy agency would do with a helicopter; the other way that I'm allowed to use the helicopter is, is our state is fairly remote, is that if we get a bomb call that is a two or three-hour drive away, rather than take the time for me to get in a vehicle and drive with her there, she flies with me and we fly to the call.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

But any day now, Owens will likely be called up as a Blackhawk Medivac helicopter pilot.

And when he goes, Superintendent Hill's crime fighting force in the air will be cut by one-third.

HOWARD HILL:

It's going to mean less law enforcement. That all it can mean. I truly can't take a five dollar bill and pay it with one dollar.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

A reserve call-up also could mean less help for the state during natural disasters. Three times in the past two years, Charleston has been hit with flash floods.

And in all instances, it was the National Guard that came to the rescue. Joe Martin, secretary of the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, says West Virginia depends on guard units in other states as well.

JOE MARTIN:

I'm concerned that other states' National Guard will be activated to the point that those resources are not readily and immediately available to us.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

But West Virginia isn't the only state facing manpower shortages.

Across the country, an estimated 120,000 National Guard and reservists could be called to active duty. It's been that way every time there's been a major conflict since the end of the Vietnam War, when the draft ended.

Today's all-volunteer fighting force is heavily dependent on reserves to do logistical support and combat, people like Scott Blankenship, who's a policeman for the city of Charleston.

SCOTT BLANKENSHIP:

I'll make a report, and then we will… we monitor the pawn shops or…

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Blankenship is one of eleven Charleston City police officers who could get called up in this city of 53,000 people. If all those officers are activated, the police department will have serious scheduling problems.

SCOTT BLANKENSHIP:

O-6, copy.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Blankenship's been in the Air National Guard for eleven years, but the possibility of going to war never seemed real until now.

SCOTT BLANKENSHIP:

You already got it made out, don't you?

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

He and his wife, Beth, are trying to figure out what to say to their children.

SCOTT BLANKENSHIP:

Of course, how do you tell a four-year-old and a one-year-old that you're going to be gone for a year?

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Do you feel like Scott does, that you're willing to make the sacrifice for your country?

BETH BLANKENSHIP:

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think it's something we have to do. I mean, because, we're not the only family that this is… that this is happening to.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

It's also going to be hard for Steve and Cathy Owens.

CATHY OWENS:

Tell daddy what you stayed for at school today.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

But both say they're willing to make the sacrifice.

STEVE OWENS:

My dad was in World War II and Korea. A bunch of my friends were in Desert Storm. Some of them lost their lives, Desert Storm, Grenada and other places. It's my turn.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

The strain on families who are called up is universal; the impact on communities is not.

At present, the Pentagon says it cannot track which communities suffer the worst manpower shortages. But it hopes soon to be able to follow that with a database.

In the meantime, Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said more sensitivity must be shown when decisions are made about call-ups. He recently spoke to the Reserve Officers Association.

DONALD RUMSFELD:

I have been very unhappy in recent weeks and months as these things have come up to me kind of in giant lumps that had not been disaggregated, had not taken into full account the sensitivities involved.

If we want to have a total force and we want that concept to work, we've got to be respectful of the fact that people in the reserves and the guard have jobs.

DONALD RUMSFELD:

Rumsfeld said he's reviewing the whole process of who gets called up, and he says he hopes in the future, the Pentagon won't have to be as dependent on the National Guard and reserve when there's a conflict.