Soldiers from the Alabama National Guard build and maintain miles of HESCO barriers to protect Dauphin Island, Ala., beaches from the BP oil spill on July 23, 2010. More than 1,600 National Guardmembers are supporting Operation Deepwater Horizon in four Gulf states. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

MOBILE, Ala. – They stand in the Gulf of Mexico, water waist-high, heat topping 100-degrees, building barriers against oil.

They fly above the waves, directing “vessels of opportunity” to the slick.

They hustle among more than 1,200 people from dozens of agencies coordinating the response to a manmade disaster.

They go door-to-door telling residents and businesses about the British Petroleum claims process.

National Guard Soldiers and Airmen are supporting Operation Deepwater Horizon, the Coast Guard-led effort to corral the oil spill that followed the April 20 explosion and fire on the oil rig for which the operation is named.

An entry identification team consisting of U.S. Army Soldiers from the National Guard man a post on Johnson Mountain in New Mexico June 17, 2006. The team gathers intelligence about illegal immigrants attempting to enter the U.S. from Mexico and relays it to Border Patrol agents. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

WASHINGTON – About 1,200 National Guard troops will support the Department of Homeland Security in enhancing the security of the nation’s Southwest border, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said here Tuesday.

“President Obama … will deploy more than 1,200 National Guard troops to assist the ongoing efforts to secure the border and combat the cartels,” Napolitano said during remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies about ongoing DHS initiatives and new strategies to bolster border security and enforce immigration laws.

“The National Guard deployments that have worked throughout the last 20 years … has worked in a very, very coordinated fashion, to the point that it increases our capabilities in such a fashion that it puts more … border patrol agents’ boots on the ground,” David Aguilar, deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said during a panel discussion following Napolitano’s remarks.

“Support from the National Guard – but yet a clear division: them not arresting, not engaging in enforcement activities directly attributed to any illegal crossings of either aliens, narcotics or things of that nature – … has worked out very well,” Aguilar said. “The National Guard … will bring us a tremendous amount of capability in securing our borders.”

DHS works with federal, state, local, tribal and Mexican partners to crack down on border-related crime and smuggling while facilitating legitimate travel and commerce.

Obama has requested $500 million in supplemental funds for enhanced border security and law enforcement activities in addition to the deployment of National Guard troops, according to a DHS fact sheet.

Napolitano announced a slew of additional initiatives on Tuesday that include creating new partnerships with state and local law enforcement, building information-sharing capabilities, enhancing technology, prioritizing the arrest and removal of dangerous criminal aliens and expanding unprecedented law enforcement partnerships with Mexico.

The National Guard successfully supported the border security mission during Operation Jump Start from 2006 to 2008.

The latest mission using 1,200 volunteers drawn from the four border states will provide criminal investigative analysis and entry identification teas in support of Customs and Border Protection for one year.

EITs monitor the border from strategic observation points with state-of-the-art surveillance and detection tactics and technology in support of local law enforcement.

The deployment of National Guard troops is part of a multi-layered effort targeting illicit networks trafficking in people, drugs, illegal weapons and money, Guard officials said.

With nearly 470,000 Guardmembers in the 54 states and territories and the District of Columbia, the National Guard is uniquely suited to support homeland defense operations, to include border security missions.

Army Maj. Gen. David A. Sprynczynatyk, the adjutant general of the North Dakota National Guard, talks with National Guard troops assigned to Kosovo Forces 12 (KFOR 12), Multi-National Battle Group - East (MNBG-E), at Camp Bondsteel, near Urosevac in eastern Kosovo, on May 23, 2010, during a visit by National Guard and Defense Department leaders. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

PRISTINA, Kosovo – More than a decade into a National Guard mission to support Kosovo’s security and stability, the chief of the National Guard Bureau said he saw significant progress in the young nation during a late May visit here.

 “The mission has evolved over the years from a hot, kinetic fight to supporting … NATO forces … to a point where Kosovo can continue to be an independent country and can stand on its own two feet with good governance,” Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley said during his second visit here.

 “The reason I wanted to come back to Kosovo was to thank these forces – predominantly from North Dakota, but with 13 additional states – for this mission, because I think at times it does drop off the average American citizen’s radar screen,” McKinley said.

 Through the 1990s, this Delaware-sized new nation was wracked by Serbian repression of the Albanian majority and by an insurgency bent on independence. NATO intervention in 1999 ended the violence.

 U.S. troops, including the National Guard, have been part of a NATO and United Nations police force on the ground ever since. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Feb. 17, 2008.

 “The National Guard is a tremendous instrument for smart power,” Missouri Sen. Christopher Bond said in March. Smart power is the application of a range of diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal and cultural tools to foreign-policy demands.

 Here in Kosovo, the National Guard assists in keeping the peace and helping a fledgling nation find its feet. This is one of numerous domestic and overseas missions simultaneously executed by Guardmembers who have seen a greatly increased operational tempo since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the Guard’s transformation from a strategic reserve to an operational force.

Reporters surround Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, in Ramdan, Israel, on May 26, 2010. A National Guard delegation is visiting the country to strengthen a relationship with the Israeli Defense Force's Home Front Command and observe National Level Exercise Turning Point 4. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

TEL AVIV, Israel – Sirens wailed across Israel and residents took shelter today during a nationwide civil defense exercise carefully watched by a delegation of National Guard leaders.

The communication, collaboration and coordination National Level Exercise Turning Point 4 revealed between the Israeli Defense Force’s Home Front Command – roughly analogous to the National Guard – and local agencies set an example for the Guard, said Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau.

“While not exact – because our states and governors and adjutants general are really our commanders and they have a state affiliation, whereas the Home Front Command is a national member of the Israeli Defense Force – what I saw here was the integrated way in which the Home Front Command works with their local officials, down to the mayors of the cities,” McKinley said.

“We are doing the same missions,” said Israeli Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, the HFC commander. “We try to help and support the civilian population. Our main counterpart in the United States is the National Guard.”

Golan said the HFC – which also is a reserve force – respects the professionalism of the National Guard, which has many of the same capabilities as the HFC.

Geopolitical reality has forced a high level of readiness on the HFC. “This is a very dangerous neighborhood,” McKinley said. “They’re under constant threat of attack. Being ready next month or next week is not an option. You must be ready today for any eventuality.”

An Israeli officer briefs Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, from an observation post overlooking the Gaza strip near the Israeli city of Sderot on May 25, 2010. A National Guard delegation is visiting the country to strengthen a relationship with the Israeli Defense Force's Home Front Command and to observe National Level Exercise Turning Point 4. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

SDEROT, Israel — A four-year relationship between the National Guard and the Israeli Defense Force’s Home Front Command is yielding valuable lessons for both sides.

The National Guard is on an endless quest to improve homeland defense in the United States. Circumstances have forced the IDF to be a world leader in homeland defense, as National Guard leaders saw firsthand during a visit to this town overlooking the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the IDF seeks insights on issues such as border operations – something the National Guard has more than two decades of experience with, supporting civilian authorities on the nation’s Southwest border, most notably during Operation Jump Start from 2006-2008.

“Our relationship with Israel is a critical one that is stronger than ever,” Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, said Tuesday as he toured Sderot’s civil defense measures. “We greatly value this cooperation. Our exchange of ideas and information with the Home Front Command is of substantial benefit to the National Guard in exercising its responsibilities for homeland defense.”

Although there are significant structural and legal differences, the IDF is broadly analogous to the Army and the HFC is analogous to the National Guard.

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

MCLEAN, Va. – Suicide is a permanent solution to temporary problems and on Memorial Day in 2005 one of my best friends chose it.

Though he toyed with joining the Air National Guard, he wasn’t a servicemember, but I am a Soldier touched by suicide, and maybe something in his story will help.

Suicide leaves family members and friends with a peculiar pain entirely different from other deaths, such as losing both parents to natural causes, as I have in the last seven years.

In the almost five years since my friend’s death, the pain has never left; its quality changes, but grief lingers.

Grief and guilt.

Family members and friends ask: Why didn’t I call? Why wasn’t I there? Why didn’t I heed the warnings?

It helps when someone says it is arrogant to think anything we might have done would have made a difference, but it does not make the questions go away – especially as the National Guard’s experience tackling suicide and studies of suicide psychology suggest intervention can be the difference between life and death.

In retrospect, the warnings were all too clear.

Two fellow Soldiers saved the life of full-time Arkansas Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class James Powell, seen here outside a readiness center in Hot Springs, Ark., on April 15, 2010, when they went to his home, found him hanging from the ceiling and cut him down. Intervention at the first signs of trouble and having experts who are available to listen are crucial to helping troubled Soldiers before they ever reach that point, Powell said. "Somebody who's borderline suicidal, the last thing they need to do is be talking to answering machines all day," he said. "All that does is push you over." (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Army Sgt. 1st Class James Powell badly needed someone to answer the phone.

He couldn’t recall crying in 20 years, but the Arkansas National Guard full-timer had broken down, cried, struggled to breathe, had what he later realized was a panic attack and threatened his first sergeant and a lieutenant.

He had been sent home. The next day, a fellow noncommissioned officer from his battalion took Powell to a Veterans Affairs hospital emergency room.

Neither knew that if they told someone Powell was facing a mental health crisis he would vault to the front of the line.

Instead, after several hours waiting, Powell was seen by a doctor. The mental health provider had gone for the day. Powell was sent home with Ambien and Xanax prescriptions, encouraged to sleep and told to call tomorrow to schedule an appointment.

Which was what he was trying to do.

“I kept getting the runaround and talking to machines, and I finally lost it and attempted to hang myself,” Powell said.

Stephanie Farmer visits the grave of her late husband in Conway, Ark., on April 17, 2010. Army Spc. Josh Farmer died by suicide on Sept. 20, 2009. "You wonder why you couldn't fix it," Stephanie Farmer said. "In my case, why me and my son weren't enough. You get mad, and then you get sad. I relive what he must have been going through. That's the hard part, is to imagine that point, because you would have to feel so alone. None of it makes sense -- and it won't." (U.S. Army photo by SSG Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

CONWAY, Ark. – The death of Army Spc. Josh Farmer intensified the state of Arkansas’ focus on helping troubled Soldiers and Airmen.

Farmer died by suicide Sept. 20, 2009. Among initiatives prompted in part by his death: A unique memorandum of understanding between the Arkansas National Guard and the Department of Veterans Affairs that greatly increased the Guard’s ability to intervene before it is too late.

“Sometimes Josh said he needed help; sometimes he did not think he needed help,” said Stephanie Farmer, Josh’s widow, who visits her husband’s grave here about once a week because it is where she feels closest to him.

“Josh was a good talker. He could make you think he was OK. He could hide his feelings very well,” she said.

Farmer’s gift for talking enabled him to persuade doctors he should be released whenever he had second thoughts about treatment.

At the time, Arkansas Guard officials could get little information about patients. They were not notified when troubled servicemembers left treatment. They were powerless to force hospital stays.

No more.

Army Maj. Gen. William Wofford, the adjutant general of the Arkansas National Guard, and Army Capt. Tanya Phillips, the state's suicide prevention program manager, discuss a Soldier's case before visiting with him at the Central Arkansas Veterans Heathcare System's Eugene J. Towbin Healthcare Center on April 17, 2010. "It takes the strength and courage of a warrior to ask for help," Wofford said. The Arkansas National Guard has aggressively pursued innovative ways to help troubled Citizen-Soldiers and -Airmen since leaders first noticed increased warning signs about two years ago. (U.S. Army photo by SSG Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – It’s 4:30 p.m., on a Saturday afternoon, and the adjutant general of the Arkansas National Guard has worked a 60-plus hour week, but he has one more meeting – with a lower-enlisted Soldier.

The Soldier does not know Army Maj. Gen. William Wofford is coming to visit him at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System’s Eugene J. Towbin Healthcare Center here, but the general has a message to deliver:

There is hope, and we care at the very highest levels of your chain of command.

“It takes the strength and courage of a warrior to ask for help,” Wofford says, echoing a Department of Veterans Affairs slogan.

The Soldier is being cared for and remains under close observation after the Arkansas National Guard received a phone call of concern from a civilian friend. The Guard, assisted by both local and national civilian agencies, went to extraordinary lengths to find him.

Resiliency is one key to preventing suicide, said Army Capt. Tanya Phillips, suicide prevention program manager for the Arkansas National Guard, seen here after leading training at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in Little Rock, Ark., on April 17, 2010. "The resilience is not learned as it might have been in past generations," Phillips said. (U.S. Army photo by SSG Jim Greenhill) (Released)

By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau

CAMP JOSEPH T. ROBINSON, Ark. – Two uniformed Arkansas National Guard Soldiers visit homeless shelters and food pantries in a Little Rock neighborhood, joined by a dozen police officers.

Someone has called to report concern about a servicemember’s welfare. Neither the Guard nor police nor other civilian agencies have been able to track down the troop, and it has come down to house-by-house inquiries in an area where a cell phone provider has reported the servicemember last used his phone.

“The Arkansas National Guard cares about every Soldier and every Airman and – our adjutant general has said – every servicemember that is in our state boundaries … and they served their country, we care enough to drop everything and help them,” said Army Capt. Tanya Phillips, suicide prevention program manager.

Arkansas is one of many National Guard states – others include California, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Puerto Rico, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin  – that have gone above and beyond in responding to a spike in military suicides. Arkansas had one such death in 2008, seven in 2009.

What Arkansas has done in the last 14 months makes for a case study in response.