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N.M. Guard Prepared for WMD Attack, Officials Say
Representatives for New Mexico’s National Guard have defended the state’s ability to respond to attacks involving chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons despite the conclusions of an independent report, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 1). The Jan. 31 report from the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves said the United States “does not have sufficient trained, ready forces available” for WMD response and the number of combat-ready Army National Guard units has declined in the last year. “We think we have sufficient trained ready forces available and we’ve proved it since 9/11,” said New Mexico Guard spokesman Tom Koch. All 4,000 New Mexico Army and Air National Guard members receive at least the mandatory eight hours of annual WMD-response training, Koch said. “All the units have invariably more than that,” he said. The 64th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team in “We’re on call 24-7,” said Lt. Col. Bill Shuert, the unit’s commander, adding that the team’s WMD-response equipment includes a machine capable of identifying roughly 200,000 agents. “In reality, we may not know what the incident is. Chemical, biological, nuclear, high-yield explosives — that doesn't capture the reality of what we could be responding to,” Shuert said (Sue Major Holmes, Associated Press/Albuquerque Journal, Feb. 20).
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