Political Quotes

“I'm offering this amendment for myself and my Co-Chairman of the Senate National Guard Caucus, Senator Bond, along with Senators Lott, Stevens and Grassely. Last year conferees added language to the Fiscal Year 1998 Defense Authorization bill requiring all counter-drug missions conducted by National Guard units to comply with section 2012 of Title 10 and section 508 of Title 32. Before these changes, National Guard men and women supported Federal, State and Local law enforcement agencies in a wide variety of ways from transcription and translation of DEA wiretaps to aerial and ground thermal imaging of suspected indoor marijuana growing to maintaining listening and Observation posts along the Southwest Border. But because of changes in last year's bill, National Guard members now can only participate in counter drug missions if the mission contributes to their military speciality skills or MOS. For example, this means a member of National Guard whose MOS is a radio specialist could only work in that speciality or if an airman is a mechanic he or she could only repair an airplane! You won't find anyone in the Guard Bureau or the Department of Defense who has ever claimed that counter-drug duty has a negative impact on the training and readiness of National Guard personnel. In fact, there's empirical evidence that counter-drug duty enhances the military readiness of National Guard personnel.”