The
California National Guard will establish the headquarters
for its border task force this week in Chula Vista, a
National Guard spokesman said yesterday.
In a May 15 address, President Bush asked the nation's
governors to provide 6,000 National Guard troops to augment
the Border Patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border. Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger agreed to send 1,000 California Guardsmen.
Col. Kevin Ellsworth
is leading the task force, which this week numbers about 500
soldiers and will total 1,000 by the end of July, said Maj.
Daniel Markert, a Guard spokesman in Sacramento.
Markert said Ellsworth and a few dozen members of the
task force will operate from the Chula Vista headquarters.
Others will work from Border Patrol offices in San Diego and
El Centro.
About 300 Guardsmen are in place along the border,
Markert said, including about 200 in the San Diego area. An
additional 235 have arrived for processing and training this
week at the San Diego Naval Station at 32nd Street.
Guardsmen involved in border duty are mostly volunteers
drawn from units statewide, Markert said. They typically
will serve tours of 30 to 90 days before being replaced by
other volunteers.
About half of all California National Guard troops have
seen combat duty recently in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo,
Egypt's Sinai Desert or Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Those veterans
will be exempt from the border call-up, Markert said.
