Maryland Reserve Unit Called
to Active Duty, Begins Training at Andrews AFB By
Jennifer Dorroh
Capital News Service
Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2001
WASHINGTON - They don't know where they're going or exactly what their jobs
will be, but members of the Maryland-based 459th Security Forces Squadron of
the Air Force Reserves have been called to service and told to get their
affairs in order.
The 47 members of the squadron were called up Sunday, part of the 14,000
reservists and National Guardsmen who have been called in response to the
Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. The members of the
459th squadron, many of them officers in area police departments, follow
more than 300 Maryland National Guardsmen who were ordered to the Pentagon
shortly after the attacks and 15 volunteers from their own ranks who are
helping process remains of Pentagon victims.
The security squadron provides ground defense for air bases and includes
Ravens, a special force trained in counter-terrorism, airport security and
defusing potential international incidents. The Air Force has said this
call-up could last from six months to two years.
"We hope it won't be the full two years, but the order gives the
president and his chiefs the leeway to keep them on as long as need,"
said Maj. James G. Bishop, a spokesman for the 459th Airlift Wing.
The unit's specific mission is not yet known, he said, but members are
training and preparing for whatever lies ahead.
"I can't say whether it will be here or abroad," Bishop said.
"They're training and doing everything they need to do to get ready.
They get their emergency data up to date and their wills in
order."
The squadron is one of 19 units that make up the 459th Airlift Wing of the
Air Force Reserve Command, which has 1,444 Reservists. The wing has
reservists from 29 states, who carry people and cargo worldwide in its nine
C-141 Starlifter aircraft, Bishop said.
Several Marylanders have also been called to provide security at the Dover
Air Force Base in Delaware, said Senior Airman Cathy Milhoan, a spokeswoman
for the 512th Security Forces Squadron. That unit, which also reported for
duty Sunday, is providing airfield security to the planes on the runway and
to personnel around the base, she said.
"There's no word on what they'll be doing long-term," Milhoan
said.
When not on active duty, reservists report to duty at least one weekend each
month and also participate in 14 days of training each year. Otherwise, they
live normal civilian lives.
Last week, for example, David was designing telecommunications and computer
networks for Verizon Communications in Herndon, Va. This week, the Sterling,
Va., resident is a first sergeant at Andrews, helping fellow squadron
members prepare for the possibility of deployment far from their
families.
"I'll stay behind to act as their representative if they are called
away," David said.
Military officials asked that reservists' full names not be used, after
threats were made against the families of some soldiers who were identified
during previous deployments. Although his wife is anxious, she and David
told their four adopted children -- ages 9 though 12 -- that their father
had an important job to do.
"I think it's the right thing to do," he said.
Bishop said a family support unit provides health care and counseling to the
reservists' families. "If [the reservists] are moved off base, we even
have a videophone on base where they can bring the kids and they can see
each other and talk," he said.
Fifteen mortuary reservists from the 459th Airlift Wing's service squadron
reported to Dover Air Force Base the week of the attacks. There, the
volunteers are helping identify and process remains of the victims of the
Pentagon attack.
On Sept. 12, the Defense Department ordered 300 Maryland National Guard
members to secure the crime scene at the Pentagon, where they have been
working 12-hour shifts around the clock for two weeks, said Lt. Barbara
Maher, a Guard spokeswoman.
Maher also said that about a dozen other guard members have been controlling
air traffic around the Pentagon.
Copyright © 2001 University of Maryland College of
Journalism
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