Guard deployments weaken public safety forces

As the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq drag on, the frequent deployment of the National Guard is forcing some Massachusetts communities to do without a growing number of their "first responders," the police, firefighters, and other emergency workers who often double as part-time soldiers, according to a state public safety survey.

State and local officials across the Commonwealth point to the pending deployment to Iraq of the 972d Military Police Company in Reading as an example. Of the 190 members who will be gone for a year or more, at least 30 work in law enforcement or other emergency services, according to a tally by the Executive Office of Public Safety.

Five members of the unit, which will get a send- off from Nickerson Field at Boston University today, are members of the State Police. Nine are Department of Correction officers. The rest hail from nearly a dozen police, fire, and sheriff's departments across the state.

Of the 341 first responders serving in the Massachusetts Air and Army National Guard, at least 50 will be on military deployment by this weekend, according the data.

Officials do not believe that significantly jeopardizes overall efforts to fight crime and protect the public. But they are concerned about the effect of the deployments on smaller jurisdictions with fewer public safety employees that must make do when their Guard members are called up and then successfully reintegrate them when they complete tours of duty in combat zones.

Charlton Police Chief James A. Pervier, who has two of 19 officers on duty in Iraq, said Guard deployments can create headaches for a small department.

"It means less staffing and less officers answering the calls," said Pervier. "It requires additional overtime. We had to reassign personnel."

State homeland security officials say they are also seeing the strain on the citizen soldiers themselves. Guard members who are first responders return from the battlefield to stressful, often dangerous jobs on the front lines of their communities.

"Not only are they being pulled from public safety jobs, but when they come back they return to extreme professions," said Juliet Kayyem, the state's undersecretary of homeland security. "These are people who are sacrificing 24-7, whether deployed or not. We want to ensure that the first- responder community statewide is not being too stretched."

The Massachusetts Department of Fire Services says some firefighters back from Iraq or Afghanistan have wrestled with physical and mental trauma they suffered during their tour of duty. As a result, some are unable to perform their jobs.

"The transition in some cases has been very difficult," said state Fire Marshall Stephen D. Coan. "The firefighters in the war zone get no down time to decompress. When they come back . . . the bell hits. The transition from the war zone to a municipal firehouse is a difficult one."

Coan said that fire officials have made available extra counseling for firefighters returning from overseas deployments.

Massachusetts is not alone in experiencing the disruptions that Guard deployments can have. Homeland security officials across the country complain that deployments have hampered their ability to respond to domestic emergencies.

Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, the National Guard, which at one time accounted for up to 40 percent of the US troops serving in Iraq, has become more of a full-time backup for the military than a reserve designed to be called to active duty sparingly or only in emergencies.

The National Guard is at the disposal of state governors unless ordered into federal status by the president. Once Guard members are called to active duty by the federal government, however, governors lose authority to command the force for state emergencies.

When Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, for example, a large part of the Louisiana National Guard was in Iraq, raising questions about whether some of the storm's more than 1,000 victims could have been rescued if a larger part of the state militia were nearby. Other Guard units have had to transfer key equipment such as trucks, Humvees, and helicopters to Iraq.

The National Governors' Association has recently called for a greater voice for state officials in Pentagon deliberations over how and when to use National Guard units.

A report two years ago by the nonpartisan Institute for Policy Studies found that 44 percent of the country's police forces had at one time been deprived of officers by Guard call-ups. It said that the frequent deployment of National Guard members "puts a particularly heavy burden on their home communities."

In some states, "the absence of so many Guard troops has raised concerns about the ability to handle fires and other natural disasters," the report said.

Some specialists have proposed screening Guard applicants to ensure that members with critical emergency response skills are kept at home.

"My argument is that first responders are critical, so the Guard ought to get other people in there," said Lawrence Korb, former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration. "Before you can join the Guard and Reserve, you should have to prove you don't have a critical billet" in local public safety agencies.

For larger municipalities such as Boston, which will be short at least one police officer and one firefighter during the 972d's tour of duty, the impact is limited. But for smaller jurisdictions, the loss of manpower can be significant.

"We have people consistently called up to the Guard," said Worcester County Sheriff Guy Glodis, who has at least one correction officer set to be deployed. "We have people overseas right now."

But he said the cost of losing some of his 400 officers to military deployments is worth it.

"Responsibility to the nation should trump any inconveniences to public safety," Glodis said. "I am more concerned about the United States winning the war on terrorism than coping with people unavailable on a shift."

But the deeper impact may be the emotional scars some first responders bring back from long and repeat military deployments.

"The emotional stress of war and being a first responder is something that has to be addressed from the military perspective, but also the local perspective," Kayyem said.

Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com.