AZMEX SPECIAL 4 APR 2018
Note: from 2007. The following two stories a lesson on how NOT to do it. Missing the links on both.
Comment: Troops need to be properly armed and equipped. And led.
With ROE's ( rules of engagement) that allow them to defend themselves and our country.
Not PC ROE's set by the corrupt and cowardly in Washington DC.
Especially being authorized to return fire, to wherever it originates.
Arms should include the following to meet any contingency: 7.62x51, .50BMG, 40mm, 81mm, M67 etc.
AH-64's stationed close and on call.
Thx
Jan 31, 5:24 PM EST
Border standoff rattles National Guard
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press Writer
DEL RIO, Texas (AP) -- A recent standoff between National Guardsmen and heavily armed outlaws along the Mexican border has rattled some troops and raised questions about the rules of engagement for soldiers who were sent to the border in what was supposed to be a backup role.
Six to eight gunmen - possibly heading for Mexico with drug money - approached a group of Tennessee National Guard troops at an overnight observation post Jan. 3 on the U.S. side of the Arizona-Mexico border. No one fired a shot, and the confrontation ended when American troops retreated to contact the Border Patrol. The gunmen then fled into Mexico.
But the incident made some National Guard commanders nervous enough to move up training dates for handling hostage situations. And some lawmakers have questioned why the rules prohibit soldiers from opening fire unless they are fired upon.
"Why would this be allowed to happen?" Republican Arizona state Rep. Warde Nichols said. "Why do we have National Guard running from illegals on the border?"
Nichols said until the rules of engagement are changed, the troops are little more than "window dressing ... to say we are doing something about border security."
"We want to untie their hands," he added. "We want to put them in a primary role."
The standoff was the first known armed encounter between National Guard troops and civilians since President Bush ordered about 6,000 soldiers to the border in May to support the Border Patrol and local law enforcement. The guard was supposed to be the "eyes and ears" for other agencies and was not given authority to arrest or detain illegal immigrants.
The men who confronted the soldiers were armed with automatic weapons and wearing ballistic vests when they saw the soldiers, split into two groups and appeared to be trying to surround them, authorities said. Before the Guardsmen retreated, one gunman came within 35 feet of the soldiers, according to a National Guard report. The outlaws' nationality was unclear, investigators said.
Republican Arizona state Rep. Jerry Weiers said the rules of engagement put soldiers in a tough position.
"My real, true, honest concern here is that we don't return fire until we have been fired upon, and by then we have probably lost a life," Weiers said.
Arizona's Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, a Republican whose prosecution of illegal immigrants has drawn national attention, called the incident "a deep embarrassment" that highlights growing dangers from well-armed drug traffickers and human smugglers along the border.
Texas soldiers will undergo additional training on what to do if they are separated from their teams or taken hostage or kidnapped.
"It mainly encompasses how to treat your captors, what to think about when you are in that position and what to do when you are being rescued," Staff Sgt. Henry Aguirre said as he watched three soldiers on an overnight shift survey the darkened Rio Grande just outside Del Rio.
Guard officials had planned to run the training later this year, Aguirre said, but the standoff "increased the urgency."
Several soldiers said the Arizona confrontation worried them.
"I didn't think they were going to get that bold," said Sgt. Samuel Perez of Savannah, Ga. "It's kind of been chilling that somebody is going to be that crazy."
First Lt. Wayne Lee, a spokesman for the New Mexico National Guard, said soldiers "are not supposed to get into a firefight. It's not the Sunni Triangle."
T.J. Bonner, president of the Border Patrol agents' union, said the soldiers sent to bolster his agents are unnecessarily at risk.
"It's not like some picnic down there," Bonner said. "Anyone down there enforcing the laws is going to be caught up in the violence."
Bonner said he worried that the soldiers apparently can only defend themselves "once the bullets start flying."
"It's a recipe for disaster," Bonner said.
End
Note: from 2007.
Guard stayed at post in rock attack
Sunday incident is second involving threat to soldiers assisting on border
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.31.2007
Armed National Guard soldiers who were attacked with rocks by unknown assailants Sunday night at an observation post south of Sells took cover but did not leave their post, Border Patrol officials said Tuesday.
The incident is the second perilous encounter for a National Guard entrance-identification team in the past month on the Arizona-Mexico border. On Jan. 3, a group of men, including at least one carrying an AK-47, approached four Tennessee Guardsmen at a post east of Sasabe forcing them to vacate the post and move back. No shots were fired and nobody was hurt.
No one suffered injuries in the latest encounter either. Two windows were broken in a vacant, parked National Guard vehicle, said Jesús Rodriguez, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. Officials aren't yet sure if the men were in the United States or Mexico when they threw the rocks, how many there were and if they had any weapons, he said.
The Arizona National Guard will assign an officer to investigate what happened as it does with any incident in which its soldiers faced potential danger, said Maj. Paul Aguirre, a spokesman for the Arizona National Guard. But it's important keep it in context, he said.
"There was nothing more remarkable than a couple of windows being broken out," Aguirre said.
Rock throwings are fairly commonplace for Border Patrol agents but Sunday's assault marked the first time it happened to Guardsmen, Rodriguez said. They usually occur in places such as Nogales, Douglas and Naco where steel, landing-mat fences mark the border line. It's rare for a rock throwing to occur in a remote desert area like the one where it took place Sunday night, a few hundred feet north of the border on the Tohono O'odham Reservation south of Sells.
With as many as 80 entrance-identification teams along the border in visible posts to serve as deterrents, both Aguirre and Rodriguez agreed the assaults will likely continue.
"I think the longer we are involved in the mission there is a greater possibility that incidents like this will take place," Aguirre said.
The Guard has been on the border since June. In addition to serving as additional eyes and ears for the Border Patrol in the entrance-identification teams, they provide air support; repair vehicles, fences and roads; erect vehicle barriers; and work in offices and camera rooms.
There are 2,183 National Guard troops in Arizona as part of the mission, 492 of whom are Arizona guardsmen, said Maj. Gen. David Rataczak, the commander of the Arizona National Guard. The two-year mission is expected to cost $1.2 billion, he said.
The two January encounters have opened the eyes of the Guard soldiers, Rodriguez said.
"The Guard members now know what's happening," Rodriguez said. "The alert level is going to be higher now."
● Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.
End
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