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Sgt. Randy Holmes of Richmond is one of 172 Virginia guardsmen monitoring the vast expanse of border near Sasabe, Ariz.
Spc. Francis Thomson (right)
ABOVE: These tired and thirsty border-crossers were found along Route 286 north of Sasabe and detained by Border Patrol agents.
LEFT: Sgt. Don Halleron of Virginia Beach (left) and Spc. Arthur Price of the Fredericksburg unit keep watch for illegal border-crossers.
Spc. Carlito Barrett (left) and Spc. Reginald Williams watch as a Border Patrol agent heads south toward the border in the desert near Sasabe.
Lightning strikes near a National Guard observation post in the desert near Sasabe. Virginia National Guardsmen in Arizona to help the Border Patrol have battled extreme heat, heavy rains, flash floods, difficult terrain and boredom. There also have been some kinks in mission planning that have yet to be fully worked out. |
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SASABE, Ariz.--Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Wheeler of Spotsylvania County pulled up in his Humvee and made a quick U-turn in the pouring rain.
Wheeler, a member of Fredericksburg's 116th Brigade Troops Battalion, wore his camouflage boonie hat like a cowboy, its brim rolled up. He hung his head out the window and told his commander he could tow him up the hill, if need be.
1st Lt. Jeremiah Weiss, commander of the Virginia National Guard outpost in Sasabe, had been on his way to Observation Post 56 when his red Ram Durango slid into the ditch. A flash thunderstorm had turned a passable road through the wilderness into thick, red sludge.
He had radioed Wheeler. By the time the sergeant arrived, Weiss had wrangled his vehicle from the ditch. But he wanted Wheeler to follow him up the road.
"You're good, sir. I'll follow you out," Wheeler said.
Weiss, a Yorktown native and member of Portsmouth's 2-183rd Calvary, nodded. "Good NCOs make your life a whole lot easier," he said, continuing to the next observation point.
More than 400
It's the Virginia National Guard's contribution to Operation Jump Start, a nationwide mission to support the U.S. Border Patrol in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.
The Virginians are spread out among three of Arizona's border-crossing hot spots--Nogales, Ajo and Sasabe. Every post they man frees up Border Patrol agents to focus on law enforcement and interdiction.
The guardsmen arrived July 20 and will be in Arizona until Sept. 30. They work in 24-hour shifts, followed by 40 hours off. They work as spotters, alerting Border Patrol agents to groups crossing into the United States.
Since operations began, Virginia guardsmen have reported 376 border-crossers. Border Patrol agents have detained 83 of them. The Border Patrol also credits Task Force Stonewall with helping them confiscate 28 pounds of drugs.
The Virginians have garnered praise from both the Border Patrol and the Arizona National Guard, which oversees Task Force Stonewall. But it hasn't been a cakewalk.
The guardsmen have experienced heat illnesses, torrential rain, flash floods, difficult terrain and boredom. There also have been some kinks in mission planning that have yet to be worked out.
Hurry up and waitGetting the soldiers' paychecks and records straight has been a difficult process.
"Logistics is my main gripe," said Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Hopkins, a member of an engineer detachment from Gate City.
He's one of three "sergeants of the guard" who look after more than 100 soldiers and the daily watch-post operations at the Nogales station. He explained that Task Force Stonewall must ask Task Force Maverick, an Arizona unit, for all its supply needs.
Hopkins said that when he requests things such as better tires for vehicles, or night-vision and thermal-imaging equipment, Maverick "will tell us they don't have the funds and equipment for us."
A lot of it is in Iraq, and he under- stands that "the boys under fire" need it. But still, he said, it's frustrating when "we don't have the tools we need to execute the mission."
"It's halfway through the mission and it's starting to come through," he said.
Capt. Mark Miller, a member of the the Fredericksburg battalion, and the Nogales task force executive officer, said "the operation was hastily put together in order to put soldiers on the ground as quickly as possible."
Hopkins, who has 18 years of military service under his belt, said Task Force Stonewall was under political pressure from Washington and "had only days to get this together."
"It's one of those military things where everyone is in a hurry and people are reactive instead of proactive," he said.
Some of that pressure, combined with Border Patrol expectations, placed 119 soldiers in observation posts in Ajo, a remote, mountainous region to the west of Nogales, in less-than-ideal conditions.
"It's as if the Army comes as a turnkey force that hits the ground running," said Task Force Stonewall operations officer Maj. Michael Martin of Waynesboro, referring to Border Patrol expectations. "That's not the case."
On Monday and Tuesday of this week, six Virginia guardsmen suffered heat exhaustion while trying to reach seven high observation points.
The temperature had reached 117 degrees, with 40 percent humidity. The soldiers carried more than 50 pounds of equipment up long stretches of rocky hillsides because their vehicles could not reach the points the Border Patrol had chosen.
"We needed to modify our plan and get folks off these 1,000-foot peaks," Martin said.
After more research, the task force came up with safer, more sustainable sites in Ajo. The new observation posts were re-manned yesterday.
Another day in paradisePrickly-pear cactuses and mesquite trees line Arizona Route 286. The two-lane road leads to Sasabe, population 150, a ranch town on the Mexican border. Jackrabbits hop through the flatland brush. Cows stand in the middle of the roads, unfazed by vehicles wishing to pass.
Compared with Ajo, things are going a little more according to plan in Sasabe, where Task Force North of Task Force Stonewall is stationed.
Some 172 soldiers are manning seven observation posts in the grassy, green lowlands between the Baboquin Ari and Las Guijas mountain ranges. Weiss, the Task Force North commander, "guesstimated" that his soldiers are responsible for watching 40 miles of terrain in the Sasabe region.
The soldiers at Observation Post 57 mainly watch for vehicle traffic on far-flung ridges miles out from their post. They were having a pretty slow day on Wednesday.
"The larger vehicles are moving people out to the east or west of us," said Sgt. Harold Ashworth of Alexandria, the noncommissioned officer in command of OP 57.
The "coyotes" who smuggle border-crossers drop their human cargo in the wilderness, he said.
Pfc. Jeff Helgeson, of Fredericksburg's battalion, was keeping dry in the OP's covered truck during a mini thunderstorm. The 23-year-old guardsman said coming out to Arizona made more sense than going to Iraq.
"This is something that benefits America and especially the people here in Arizona," he said, adding that he was surprised by how "open" the border is.
Freed from the mud, Weiss was headed to another OP when he stopped at the side of the road and looked at a trail of plastic water bottles and jugs. Their presence indicated a foot path used by border-crossers, who had long since come and gone. Once the water is consumed, the crossers lighten their load.
"I wouldn't really call myself an environmentalist, but " he said, his voice trailing off as he left his Durango.
He picked up two jugs that had been dropped along the path. They had been painted black to better blend into the dark of night.
"Statistics I've seen say that crossers leave 8 pounds of trash behind per day per person," Weiss said. "Per month, there's tons and tons of trash out here."
At Observation Post 61, Spc. Arthur Price was watching the border through binoculars. Price, who works at Stafford's Rappahannock Regional Jail and drills with the Fredericksburg battalion, said it had been an unusually slow afternoon.
When asked why he left Virginia to volunteer for a three-month desert mission, he replied: "I've been to the desert before. I went with the 276th Engineers to Iraq. This is just another day in paradise."
He laughed. "This is America I'm defending. I volunteered for this."
Forty miles from successA few hours later, Weiss and 2nd Lt. Jerett Burman of the Arizona National Guard were heading to Tucson to spend the night. Just past Mile 18 on Route 286, they pulled off the road and drove a few yards into the brush.
A pole with a tattered blue flag attached to it indicated a water station. Three blue tanks had the words "water" and "agua" painted on them. They were empty.
"These are the humanitarian points you see on the news a lot," Weiss said. There are about 20 such stations in the area, he added.
This point was maintained by Humane Borders, a group that leaves food and water in the desert for crossers.
"They're not pro-immigration," Weiss said, referring to Humane Borders. "It's more like 'right-to-life,' which I totally agree with."
Back on the road, Burman and Weiss passed four border-crossers sitting on the side of the road just past Mile 30. They had given up and were waiting for help. They looked scared, sheepish, dejected.
The lieutenants doubled back to the spot and radioed the Sasabe station and the Border Patrol. They carried water for the crossers. Border Patrol agents arrived in a matter of minutes.
"They get told by coyotes it's six miles to Tucson," Weiss said, commenting on the crossers he's encountered over the last month. "They get lost."
He noted that these crossers "didn't put up much of a fight. They'd rather not die in the desert. They were 40 miles from Tucson."
Once the crossers were loaded into the back of a Border Patrol truck, Burman and Weiss made it back to their red Durango.
They high-fived each other before they climbed in.
To reach MELISSA NIX:
Email: mnix@freelancestar.com
Editor's note: Free Lance-Star reporter Melissa Nix and photographer Mike Morones have spent the past week in Nogales, Ariz., with Virginia Air and Army National Guardsmen who volunteered for the Border Patrol assignment. This is the latest in their reports on the guardsmen and their mission. |
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