February 23, 2007
Story & Photo by: Maj. Scott Bell, S.C. National Guard Historian
TUCSON, AZ –
90 years after the S.C. Army National Guard’s last deployment to help protect America’s
southwest border from the outlaw Pancho Villa, Private 1st Class Kendal
Jackson of Florence, S.C.
is one of 2,000 South
Carolina Army National Guard soldiers who will spend their annual training this
year assisting the U.S. Border Patrol along the 262-mile Tucson Sector of the U.S./Mexico
border.
The purpose of this mass deployment of S.C.
Army National Guard troops
over the next three months is to assist the U.S. Border Patrol or B.P.
with their ongoing efforts to put “edges back on our border.” According to B.P.
Agents (who cannot be identified for security reasons), for every Guardsman that
helps support the border protection infrastructure here, it is providing an extra
set of eyes and ears in the form of entry identification teams.
Agents of the Border Patrol say the effect
of the presence of the National Guard serving in a variety of support roles here in the Tucson Sector has provided them with the added manpower that has led to an
increase in illegal immigrant apprehensions and narcotic seizures.
When asked why
Mexico
isn’t doing more to stem the tide of illegal immigration into the U.S. Agents responded
– “Economics.” An estimated 12 million illegal immigrants presently in the
U.S.
send back roughly $18 billion dollars a year to their families in
Mexico
.
Photo: Private 1st Class Jackson,
a mechanic with eight months experience in the S.C. Army National Guard’s 742nd
Maintenance Company is supporting Operation Jump Start by repairing Border Patrol
vehicles. He is the son of Willie and Carolyn Jackson of
Florence
.
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For additional information please contact Maj. Scott Bell of the
South Carolina
National Guard
Public Affairs Office at: 803-667-1013