Guardsmen to be Honored After U.S. Border Incident
Nashville (AP) -- The Tennessee National Guard will honor four of its men for properly handling a tense situation while patrolling the Arizona-Mexico border earlier this month.
The troops were approached by a group of six to eight armed men while on patrol January third. They withdrew without confrontation, as they're trained to do.
One armed man with the unidentified group came as close as ten meters to the guardsmen.
Guard spokesman Randy Harris says the ceremony is expected to take place later this week and Tennessee National Guard Adjutant General Gus Hargett likely will attend.
About 250 guardsmen next month will begin the third deployment of Tennessee troops for President Bush's Operation Jump Start to reinforce US Border Patrol agents.
About 180 Tennessee Guard soldiers are now stationed at the border after volunteering to stay there for up to a year.
Copyright 2007 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.
How can we be proud of this action we reward people because they run from confrontation on our border because they are programmed to do nothing. Two weeks ago we put two national guard in prison for trying to detain a drug dealer trying to bring hundreds of pounds of drugs to our children, on the promise of immunity to the drug dealer if he testifies against our troops. What message are we sending drug dealers and terrorist around the world.