NATIONAL GUARD UNITS PLAY KEY ROLE

If the Department of Defense has its way, America's longest running
war -- the one waged day in and day out against drugs -- would be
fought with fewer and fewer National Guard support personnel on the
domestic front.

The public should be up in arms over the decision.

Counterdrug programs run by National Guards across the nation are
losing funds once dedicated to helping local, state and federal law
enforcement interdict and eradicate drugs and to raising community
awareness about drug problems.

Increasingly the Department of Defense, which mainly funds National
Guards, is focusing larger parts of its counterdrug budget to fighting
external threats. Meanwhile, equipment, bought and paid for by
taxpayers -- which might otherwise sit idle -- as well as trained
personnel, could be lost as a resource for states trying to fight drug
encroachment.

Closer to home, efforts by law enforcement agencies, including the
Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, to eradicate
marijuana, the state's second largest cash crop, could lose a vital
partner if the National Guard is forced to trim support.

So far this summer, in Operation Red Rain, Guardsmen have aided drug
fighters in spraying 11 million wild marijuana plants and 55,000
cultivated plants, and have been on hand for the arrest of 43 drug
suspects.

"This certainly is a big concern for us," said OBNDD spokesman Mark
Woodward. "We've already seen how some cutbacks affected our program
in the amount of time we have to use aircraft and in the time that can
be spent in the air."

While it wouldn't be impossible to get by without Guard support,
Woodward said, "it would be very difficult" to run the marijuana
eradication program without Guard assistance.

"They work with us year round. They not only lend aircraft but support
personnel. They go out with us. We've got 10 Guardsmen out right now
spraying the wild fields."

Guardsmen also provide law enforcement with "a lot of training in
areas such as rappelling, survival techniques and first aid."
Guardsmen also have provided equipment and support for reconnaissance
and raids on methamphetamine labs and crack houses.

"Their aircraft can provide surveillance above houses, a bird's-eye
view," Woodward said. "They watch our backs."

While the overall federal drug-control budget is climbing, funding
for National Guard counterdrug programs has decreased 18 percent or by
$32 million over the past two years. This year President Clinton
proposed $17.1 billion for overall drug-fighting efforts, up $1.1
billion. Apparently taking a cue from DOD, he proposed that Congress
fund National Guard programs at $148 million, down $13 million from
fiscal 1998.

In Oklahoma, the National Guard counterdrug program has seen its
budget slashed by 30 percent from the $2 million it received in 1997.

In a plea to Congress to restore funding to the fiscal 1997 level of
$180 million, the National Guard Association of the United States said
the proposed budget reduction would translate into 200,000 fewer duty
days for direct support, a 24 percent loss in flight hours and a 20
percent reduction in support of drug-related arrests.

NGAUS said the additional funds should come from receiving a greater
share of the Department of Defense's overall counterdrug budget of
$882.3 million and not from existing National Guard or DOD readiness
accounts.

This year, up to 4,000 Guard personnel, including numerous Oklahoma
Guardsmen, will assist in thousands of drug-control missions. While
they make no arrests and enforce no drug laws their presence looms
large.

"We're not trying to become a law enforcement agency," says Lt. Col.
Mike Garman of the Oklahoma National Guard's Counterdrug Support
Section. "We don't want that mission."

But the Guard can make drug-fighters' lives a lot
easier.

"I think there is a lack of true understanding on the impact we can
have," Garman said.

It would be an extreme and duplicative expense in many instances for
law enforcement to supply itself with the millions of dollars of
specialized equipment and personnel already at Guard disposal.

"Our position is that the taxpayers already have paid for aircraft and
crew training, and Guard personnel go to drill once a month and do 15
days of annual training, so why not let taxpayers use these resources
in other ways," Garman said.

Under existing rules, each year governors' offices submit plans to the
U.S. Secretary of Defense on how to use their National Guards to
support federal, state and local law enforcement drug operations and
community education programs. The defense secretary reviews plans and
forwards a funding request to Congress. In the past two years,
Congress, which is not unsympathetic to the value of Guard work,
"actually has marked the budget request up," Garman said.

"We hear a variety of reasons for the cutbacks, including more efforts
to have a balanced budget. But within the Department of Defense there
may not be as great an understanding of the impact of drugs on the
states." Most of what DOD does in support of its counterdrug drug
operations is focused on the borders and it does not normally operate
in a domestic capacity, Garman said.

"The National Guards are different, they belong to the governors. The
leadership of the Department of Defense does not come up through the
National Guard. They're focused on the external threat in their
budgeting priorities and don't necessarily understand how the National
Guard provides real support on the domestic front," Garman said.

In Oklahoma, the Guard counterdrug program has "matured" and
diversified over the years to match changing drug patterns, Garman
said. Operations have shifted to more youth education in light of such
statistics that drug use among high school seniors is up to 42 percent.

In the end, Garman said, National Guards understand budgets are not
unlimited, priorities must be set and tough decisions must be made.

"But we don't want to take more than our fair share of the
hit."

Julie DelCour is an editorial writer for the Tulsa World.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry