Troops To Be Decorated - - - For Running Away

Greetings and Salutations to All my Kith and Kin and All the Ships in Outer Space:

Here is a news report from Tennessee:

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"TENNESSEE GUARDSMEN TO GET HONOR AFTER BORDER INCIDENT"

By: NATALIA MIELCZAREK
Sunday 21 January 2007

Four Tennessee National Guardsmen who were confronted by a group of six to eight armed men during an Arizona-Mexico border patrol earlier this month will be honored for their conduct, a Guard spokesman said.

When approached by an unidentified group of men wearing ballistic vests and carrying automatic weapons, the four withdrew, keeping their guns in a "ready low" position — a reaction praised by state National Guard officials.

"The soldiers did exactly what their mission was, to pull back if they're approached by armed personnel coming across the border," said Randy Harris, spokesman for Tennessee National Guard.

"They were to pull back, contact the Border Patrol and the Border Patrol would come and make the needed apprehension or investigate the situation.

The Tennessee National Guardsmen are not there as law enforcement."

Some two hundred and fifty Tennessee National Guardsmen will start a third deployment tour next month to assist the United States Border Patrol agents in President Bush's Operation Jump Start, created to help border security.

About one hundred and eighty Tennessee guardsmen are already serving.

The ceremony is likely to be later this week, and the troops get either an Army Commendation Medal or an Army Achievement Medal.

Harris said Saturday, he will probably accompany Tennessee National Guard Adjutant General Gus Hargett to the event.

Harris said he didn't know the identity of the Tennessee guardsmen or where they were from.

The border encounter happened on 03 January 2007 near a Sasabe, Arizona, observation post, according to a summary prepared by the National Guard Bureau and recently released to The Associated Press by Arizona Governess Janet Napolitano's office.

One of the unidentified armed men approached the Tennessee troops within twenty yards of the post, according to the document.

Neither group pointed weapons at the other, and no shots were fired.

The guardsmen slowly retreated to their vehicle, which was about two hundred yards away, and drove away, the summary says.

They contacted the United States Customs and Border Protection Office, which sent an airplane over the site and a five-member ground unit, according to the summary.

The unknown men were tracked back into Mexico, the document reads.

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The report indicates the National Guard are not there as "law enforcement".

But they were there as soldiers in the United States Army, so they should have held their post, especially if they were armed and had the means to resist.

Did they have ammunition for their weapons?

Why was their vehicle parked so far away from where they were positioned?

Was the incursion a probe to merely test our defenses?

Was contraband successfully transported into the United States?

Since the raiders successfully escaped, we'll never know.

That's one reason the Tennessee National Guard should have held their position, because the Border Patrol agents were NOT able to get there in time.

Thank you.

John Robert "SAIGON" Mallernee, KB3KWS
Official Bard of Clan Henderson
Armed Forces Retirement Home
Washington, D.C. 20011-8400

NOTE: "My unpopular and controversial personal opinions are independent of my Scottish clan."