Airborne troops alerted to aid hurricane relief

[SR-25]

Staff and agencies
01 September, 2005





By Charles Aldinger 1 hour, 18 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The military is increasing the National Guard force on the storm-ravaged Gulf coast to 30,000, and 3,000 regular Army soldiers may also be sent to help end lawlessness in New Orleans, officials said on Thursday.

The boost would bring to nearly 50,000 the number of part-time Guard and active-duty military personnel committed to the biggest domestic relief and security effort in U.S. history after Monday‘s onslaught by killer Hurricane Katrina.

"We will not tolerate lawlessness, or violence, or interference with the evacuation" of New Orleans, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff told a news conference. "I‘m satisfied that we have ... more than enough forces there and on the way."

Army Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, head of the Pentagon ‘s National Guard Bureau, said an additional 4,200 military police troops would be moved into New Orleans over three days and would be under command of the governor and state officials.

"This is not martial law," Blum told the news conference, adding that the Guard members would only support local law enforcement officials.

Each U.S. state has its own part-time National Guard force, which traditionally is at the command of the state‘s governor to mobilize for emergency duties ranging from police work to disaster response.

The Navy, meanwhile, said it was sending the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman to join an armada of vessels off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The Air Force said it was adding a high-flying U-2 spy plane to the relief effort to take pictures to help relief efforts at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency .

The Army has put on alert roughly 3,000 active-duty ground troops from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to be prepared to deploy to New Orleans to help bring security to the flooded city amid looting and lawlessness, said an Army official, who asked not to be named.

The brigade-sized force, likely to be from the 82nd Airborne Division, would engage in crowd control and site-protection activities, the official said.

The regular U.S. armed forces are prohibited by federal law from performing police functions unless they are authorized to do so by the president in a major emergency.

The Army official said, however, that crowd control and site-protection were not defined as law enforcement activities.

The official said another 240 troops from the Army‘s 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, also were going to the region.

Meanwhile, the number of National Guard troops in Louisiana and Mississippi will grow to 12,000 in each state in the next three days. Another 6,000 in Alabama and Florida will bring the total in the devastated area to 30,000, according to Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita.

"It is a trying situation at best," Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, commander of the military effort in the Gulf coast area, told Pentagon reporters from Gulfport, Mississippi, which was devastated by the hurricane.

Honore said the Guard troops were under command of the governors of the four states and that "rules of engagement" on how to crack down on looters and other lawbreakers would be set by the states, not the Pentagon.

Most of the nearly 15,000 active-duty personnel committed to the relief effort so far are Navy, including about 5,000 aboard the aircraft carrier.

Pentagon officials had said on Wednesday the number of National Guard troops would reach 21,000 by the end of Friday. Now the number will top 30,000 in the next few days, mostly in Louisiana and Mississippi.

The Truman would provide a major naval command post in the Gulf of Mexico, helping coordinate the actions of nearly a dozen other warships and supply vessels, including two Navy helicopter assault ships.

The Navy dock landing ship USS Whidbey Island also is leaving Norfolk to join the relief effort, the Navy said. Whidbey Island will bring the capability to employ a movable causeway to the region. Many bridges were destroyed.

The military hospital ship Comfort is scheduled to depart Baltimore to provide an offshore floating medical center with 12 operating rooms and up to 1,000 beds.

The Truman is capable of carrying more than 80 aircraft, including large helicopters. The Navy said it would carry additional helicopters from Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Florida to support search-and-rescue efforts.

Dozens of helicopters are also being used to help rescue trapped citizens in flooded New Orleans and provide food, water and other relief for destroyed coastal areas.

(Additional reporting by Will Dunham)

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