Guard leader says security increase posed challenges Lack of state funds hindered efforts

AUGUSTA – In the days after last year’s terrorist attacks, the Maine National Guard prepared itself to assume a crucial role in shoring up the security of the state’s borders, airports and waterways. But the grinding wheels of government meant it wasn’t going to happen overnight.

“It’s worked out fine, but it just took an awful long time to get things in place,” recalled Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Tinkham II recently.

What was needed to get things in place was money. And the state had none when it came to homeland security.

Tinkham said the state was forced to make do with funds “on the edges” of its budget until the federal government provided the infusion of cash needed to get things rolling.

“We basically have juggled resources and really put in some very, very long hours,” he said.

Thanks to his positions as the state’s commissioner of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management and as adjutant general of the Maine Army and Air National Guard, Tinkham was the person largely responsible for overseeing the demand for heightened security.

Tinkham said that while 3,600 troops under his command were ready and willing to respond, it took action from Washington to put a program in place.

He said that unlike emergency management where the federal government has a direct chain of command that runs from Washington to the states, counties and individual communities, there is no such continuity among local agencies and the federal departments of Defense, Treasury and Justice. Homeland Security proposals now before Congress are designed to eliminate those roadblocks, he said.

Tinkham said the different federal agencies had differing jurisdictions defined by law as well as their own separate budgets. The money for each is set aside for specific uses, he said, and funds appropriated, say, for the Navy, can’t be shifted to the Army without the support of Congress.

“We [the National Guard] were just sitting on the sidelines waiting for them to get their coordination issues settled,” the general recalled. “Federal and state governments had never worked together like that before. Certainly the cooperation between federal departments has been a challenge and it’s been more of a challenge between federal and state. … But we have made tremendous progress.”

He said that when the guard was put on alert it was not a matter of ordering personnel to the borders – specific changes in federal law were required to make it work.

Once the laws were changed and the money released, the troops were dispatched to their posts within the state. Today, the borders and other facilities are still receiving support from the Army National Guard. Tinkham said it will be at least another month before additional U.S. Customs and Border Patrol personnel approved by Congress will be brought on line to replace the citizen soldiers.

Tinkham said the state was ill-prepared for the demands of a homeland security crisis. He said state agencies were able to respond to some degree, but the kind of cash needed for rapid action was simply not available. That should all change if proposed Homeland Security legislation now before Congress wins approval.

Tinkham estimated that the state would receive $20 million of the $3.5 billion requested in the program’s budget.

“It would really help us,” he said. “Intelligence, security, that’s where we really need the most work and that’s where the resources have been lacking. When the feds come through we’ll be able to put some of the security enhancements in place.”

The state’s share of the security tab for the past year was minimal, he said. And though the federal government was responsible for the cost of mobilizing the National Guard, Tinkham said the state’s private sector paid a price as well.

When guard personnel are placed on alert, their employers are required by law to hold their jobs while they are gone and even give them all scheduled promotions.

Many employers also make up the difference between their missing employees’ civilian and service pay.

“Our employers here in Maine do a reasonably good job on that. They appreciate the fact that they have been called to serve their country,” he said.

Tinkham speculated that as more and more guardsmen are deployed for service in the war on terrorism or for duty in such places as Bosnia, some employers may have difficulty dealing with the economic consequences.

“We’re really calling them to duty a lot and we are really starting to take advantage of the employers,” he said. “All we can do is appeal to their patriotism at this point. …We and the other states can’t keep calling on these guardsmen again and again.”