Video: National Guard to Assist Mexican Border

Filed under DoD News, Pentagon Channel by on July 19, 2010 at 4:32 pm {no comments}



The National Guard is sending 1,200 citizen-soldiers and airmen who will serve alongside federal agents for one year as an augmentation force. The troops will work to prevent illegal immigration and drug trafficking north of the border, as well as to counter weapons and cash smuggling going south, Alan Bersin, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency commissioner, said today at a Pentagon news conference.

“We’re very pleased to be in support of our interagency partners,” Air Force Gen. Craig R. McKinley, National Guard Bureau chief, said. “Our ramp-up will be over time, and we’ll make sure that all our soldiers and airmen are well qualified, well integrated and well briefed on the mission at hand.”

Read the story on Defense.gov.

Watch the full unedited Pentagon press conference on DoDvClips.

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    An United States Air Force C-130J Hercules cargo aircraft from the 146th Airlift Wing, California Air National Guard, conducts flare training off the Ventura County coast. The flares are used as tactical infrared countermeasures to confuse and redirect heat-seeking missiles.

    (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Dave Buttner)


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    Famed Yankees pitcher “Lefty Gomez” once remarked “I’d rather be lucky than good,” but for one Tuskegee Airman, luck and good combined to make him one of the most successful combat pilots of World War II.

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    Lester was assigned to the 100th Fighter Squadron, a part of the 332nd Fighter Group, and had earned the nickname “Lucky” “because of all the tight situations from which I had escaped without a scratch or even a bullet hole in my aircraft.”

    Read the story of a flight that helped Lester earn his nickname here.


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    The only African-American ace of World War II, and a former Tuskegee Airman, went on to have a career in the Air Force, as well as success in the business world.

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    Read the rest of his story here.