Guard Times
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AT in AZ
Orion scouts support Operation Jump Start By Sgt. First Class Peter Towse HQ, 42nd Infantry Division
NOGALES, ARIZ. -- As the border mission continues, the New York National Guard maintains an ever vigilant watch on our security in Arizona with the deployment of 300 Soldiers from the 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry to form Task Force Sabre in support of Operation Jump Start. The Soldiers in Task Force Sabre deployed on their annual training from January 6-26th to answer the nation’s call for additional support to the Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection Agency. When the President directed that the Border Patrol would increase in size, he called upon the National Guard to augment their agents to leverage Border Patrol agents to better control illegal immigration and narcotics trafficking along the Southwest Border of the United States. Troops from the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry and 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry Scout sections joined the 2-101 Cavalry deployment and conducted Entry Identification Team training under the command and control of the Arizona Army National Guard. “Much of the training provided by Joint Task Force-Arizona was useful and well
executed,” said Maj. David Powell, the squadron operations officer. “The paint ball exercise as part of the EIT lanes training was both fun for Soldiers and a useful training aid,” he said in an after-action review. Deployed across more than two dozen sites in the Sasabe, Nogales and Ajo Border Patrol sectors, Soldiers manned Entry Identification Teams (EITs) to observe activity along the border and report possible items of interest to the Border Patrol. Much like the traditional cavalry scouts, the members of Task Force Sabre passed their observations and reports for action to the Border Patrol. Combined, the task force reported more than 750 unidentified aliens along the border, resulting in Border Patrol actions to detain 181 aliens and turn back an additional 46 across the border. Additionally, activity reports by the National Guard troops provided tips towards the seizure of more than 6,000 pounds of marijuana, automatic weapons and ammunition and freed up numerous Border Patrol agents to focus their own operations at other sites.�
Images from the 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry annual training in Arizona as part of the National Guard’s Operation Jump Start. More than 300 Soldiers from across the 27th Brigade Combat Team operated more than two dozen Entry Identification Teams to report illegal activities along the U.S. Southwestern Border with Mexico. The task force included infantry scouts from both the 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry and the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry for the training. Known as Task Force Sabre, the deployment to Arizona provided support to members of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency as the Border Patrol expands through 2008. Photos by Sgt. Ed Balaban.