Reaction force grounded? BRAC said to threaten protection for U.S. capital.

West Virginia National Guard and political leaders are fighting a Defense Department plan to transfer the state's eight C-130 transport aircraft to Pope Air Force Basc, N.C.

The shift would "make it almost impossible for us to accomplish our job of protecting the national capital region," said the West Virginia adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Allen E. Tackett.

Like dozens of other states, West Virginia is feeling the brunt of this most recent round of base realignment and closures.

As required by law, the Pentagon's BRAC proposal was transmitted to a presidentially appointed commission for review. The commission has until Thursday, Sept. 8, to tell the president whether it agrees with the department's specific recommendations. If the president goes along with the commission's conclusions, they are binding within 45 days unless Congress passes a joint resolution of disapproval.

Some states would benefit by the BRAC recommendations. Maryland, for example, would gain 9,293 jobs. Georgia would receive new 7,423 positions, and Texas would get additional 6,150 slots.

Other states, however, would lose jobs, and many of those are complaining. For example, West Virginia, which has struggled for decades against high unemployment, would see 251 positions disappear.

More importantly, Tackett told National Defense, the BRAC proposal would eliminate the West Virginia National Guard's ability to move its homeland defense forces quickly in response to major emergencies, such as a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.

Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, West Virginia, like many other states, has reorganized its National Guard units to include three new organizations, a reaction force, a civil support team and a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield enhanced response force package, or CBRFP.

The reaction force is trained to deploy a company to an emergency scene within four hours and a battalion within 24 hours. Similar units have been established in all 54 U.S. states and territories, explained Col. Thomas Hook, chief of the National Guard Bureau's Future Operations Division in Arlington, Va.

In West Virginia's case, its eight C-130s--assigned to the 130 Airlift Wing of the Air National Guard, headquartered at Yeager Airport in Charleston, W.Va.--"are a vital part of our entire operation," Tackett said. "This unit is supposed to help protect the national capital region," he said. That region includes Washington, D.C., and the surrounding counties of Maryland and Northern Virginia.

"Without the C-130s, we would have to drive there," Tackett said. It would take time to assemble the convoys of Humvees and trucks needed to ferry troops and heavy equipment across the 365 miles between Charleston and Washington, he noted. "Instead of one hour's flight time, it would take 10 to 12 hours."

The Pentagon wants to transfer the state's C-130s to Pope Air Force Base, which is adjacent to Fort Bragg, home of the Army's 18th Airborne Corps and Special Operations Command. At Pope, those aircraft would be employed to bolster the Air Force's ability to transport active-duty combat troops to Iraq, Afghanistan and other hot spots, Pentagon officials said.

Under the department's reorganization plans, eight aircraft is too small a number for one base, and Yeager--hemmed in by West Virginia's mountains--couldn't accommodate more, defense of officials said. "They said we couldn't park 12, but we can," Tackett said.

"We can park 12 C-130s right now, and meet every Air Force requirement," he said. "We can go to 16 with very little expense. Actually, we have the surge capacity to go to 24. The BRAC report definitely had bad information."

West Virginia officials have appealed to the BRAC Commission to let the state keep the transports. The commission has the authority to change any of the Pentagon's recommendations, but in previous rounds, it has done so in only 10 to 15 percent of the cases.

Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., conceded that getting the 130th off the BRAC list was "going to be a tough fight. But in spite of the odds, the case ... is clearer than the noon sky. We've got to do all we can to keep them flying."

West Virginia's reaction force consists of a number of companies within the state's Army National Guard, explained Col. Jim Hoyer, deputy commander for installations and homeland defense. "We have identified the units," he said. "We may not have one single battalion, but a number of different companies on call."

These units can be called out for state and federal assignments. "With the Guard, you're focused on both," Tackett said. "You can't put together a force like this to do just one mission."

The companies can be deployed within the state in response to a terrorist event or a natural disaster. They also can be federalized and deployed to a national emergency.

If requested by civil authorities, the force can help local and state law enforcement agencies by protecting key infrastructure, establishing roadblocks and providing security at incident sites.

It is trained to deploy with the state's 35th Civil Support Team (CST) and its CBRFP.

The CST is a specially trained, 22-person unit that responds--at the request of civil authorities and with approval from the governor--to incidents involving suspected weapons of mass destruction, Hoyer said. The team's job is to identify any suspicious substance, assess the potential effects, advise local authorities on how to proceed and help minimize the impact on the civilian population.

It is equipped with a mobile laboratory capable of identifying chemical or biological materials and with a sophisticated communications suite that can link the incident site with local, state and federal agencies, as well as military headquarters.

Every state now has at least one CST. Thus Far, the Guard has fielded 32 of them, including West Virginia's, Hoyer said. Another 12 currently are in training to meet Defense Department certification standards, and 11 more were organized in 2004. Eventually, every state and territory will have its own team. Because of its size, California--as ordered by Congress--has two.

West Virginia is one of 12 states where the National Guard Bureau since 2003, at the request of the U.S. Northern Command, has established CBRFPs. These units--company-sized, 120-person elements--are organized to supplement the work of the civil support teams. They respond to any suspected WMD incident occurring anywhere in the surrounding region, not just within a given state, Hoyer said. They are trained to perform mass patient decontamination, casualty triage and first aid.

In addition to West Virginia, CBRFPs are located in California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington State. California is forming six of them, to be included in a new Military Assistance for Civil Authorities Brigade.

All three of West Virginia's organizations--the reaction force, civil support team and CBRFP--can be deployed throughout the mid-Atlantic region, including the nation's capital, if needed, Hoyer said.

The three teams often practice together at the state's growing complex of military and homeland-security training Facilities, which officials said are drawing military units, law enforcement agencies and first responders from throughout the United States and even around the world. (See "Mountain Tunnel Prepares Responders to Save Lives")

The Guard also is taking steps to prevent a WMD event. West Virginia's Kanawha Valley, Hoyer noted, is home to several major chemical producers, such as 3M and Dow Chemical, which could make tempting targets for terrorists.

"General Tackett has had us focus on helping those companies conduct vulnerability assessments," Hoyer said. "We look at each company's approach to security. We help them identify vulnerabilities, and we recommend steps they can take to make improvements.

"It could be a variety of physical things, such as adding fences or guard posts, or making procedural changes, such as instituting ID checks or increasing training for security personnel. Virtually all the places that we have visited have made such changes.

"That's the key to protecting the industrial base--prevention," Hoyer said.