#150155 - 09/26/08 05:14 AM
Brigade homeland tour
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Veteran
Registered: 09/01/05
Posts: 1474
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Politics aside, this is an interesting development. Does this portend a bumpy future? Looks like some are anticipating just that. Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.
It is not the first time an active-duty unit has been tapped to help at home. In August 2005, for example, when Hurricane Katrina unleashed hell in Mississippi and Louisiana, several active-duty units were pulled from various posts and mobilized to those areas.
But this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.
After 1st BCT finishes its dwell-time mission, expectations are that another, as yet unnamed, active-duty brigade will take over and that the mission will be a permanent one.
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The 1st BCT’s soldiers also will learn how to use “the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded,” 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.
“It’s a new modular package of nonlethal capabilities that they’re fielding. They’ve been using pieces of it in Iraq, but this is the first time that these modules were consolidated and this package fielded, and because of this mission we’re undertaking we were the first to get it.”
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/
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#150157 - 09/26/08 08:59 AM
Re: Brigade homeland tour
[Re: LED]
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 11/09/06
Posts: 2851
Loc: La-USA
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It looks to me that if we do have a bumpy future, we will be forced to obey!!
I've noticed several interesting gov't contracts being let over the last couple of years that are coming to fuition now.
I'm sure that it is just a series of coincidences!!!
_________________________
QMC, USCG (Ret) The best luck is what you make yourself!
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#150162 - 09/26/08 12:05 PM
Re: Brigade homeland tour
[Re: Jeff_M]
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Geezer
Registered: 06/02/06
Posts: 5357
Loc: SOCAL
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. . .Personally, I've always wondered how the military would respond if given orders to act domestically in some manner that raises serious Constitutional concerns.
Jeff Hopefully we won't find out. . . film at eleven.
_________________________
Better is the Enemy of Good Enough. Okay, what’s your point??
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#150180 - 09/26/08 04:48 PM
Re: Brigade homeland tour
[Re: Jeff_M]
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 09/15/05
Posts: 2485
Loc: California
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The mission at home, as described, could be very helpful and important, but isn't that what we have a National Guard for? The opposite question is also important--is it appropriate to send so many National Guard (and their equipment) overseas for so long, too, making them unavailable when situations arise in their home states? Like Lousiana after Katrina.
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#150191 - 09/26/08 09:07 PM
Re: Brigade homeland tour
[Re: LED]
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Cranky Geek
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 09/08/05
Posts: 4642
Loc: Vermont
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The mission of NorCom in general makes me uncomfortable. But this is far from the first time military personnel have been tasked with domestic law enforcement. The plan are on the book, have been for a century. *shrugs*
But I have to openly mock the comment about "the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded". Sorry... I guess someone missed the use of less lethal kinetics in Bosnia, Somalia, and to some degree, Iraq, along with the use of irritant agents going back decades earlier.
_________________________
-IronRaven
When a man dare not speak without malice for fear of giving insult, that is when truth starts to die. Truth is the truest freedom.
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#150197 - 09/26/08 10:12 PM
Re: Brigade homeland tour
[Re: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor]
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Icon of Sin
Addict
Registered: 12/31/07
Posts: 512
Loc: Nebraska
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If I WAS wearing my tinfoil hat, I'd say it's a pretty lucky coincidence that all the local boys in the guard are out of the country and it's the non-local troops that would be asked to do the nasty. It's easier to put down unrest if it's not your cousin Earl being the dissident. Hmm, the troops are also pretty used to having indigenous terrorists being the enemy. But, since I'm just wearing my cotton beanie today, I won't think things like that
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#150202 - 09/26/08 11:12 PM
Re: Brigade homeland tour
[Re: LED]
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Newbie
Registered: 05/24/08
Posts: 40
Loc: Texas
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as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.
I thought this was the idea for bring many organizations under the department of Homeland Security. Besides, aren't those tasks for FEMA or other federal law enforcement?
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