Bush authorizes call-up of reserves: Pentagon

20/04/2001| IslamWeb

WASHINGTON, (AFP) -Declaring a national emergency in the wake of the worst attack on the United States in recent memory, President George W. Bush Friday approved the call-up of up to one million military reservists, Pentagon officials said.
The Defense Department plans to immediately call 35,000 reservists to active duty for "homeland defense" and to support local authorities coping with Tuesday's deadly suicide attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon using hijacked jetliners as weapons.
It was the first partial mobilization of the ready reserves since the 1991 Gulf War when more than 265,000 members of the National Guard and military reserves were called up.
"The cap is one million people and the limit is two years," said Craig Duehring, the Pentagon official in charge of reserve affairs. "Under a handshake agreement, the secretary of defense will discuss with the White House the situation if he exceeds 50,000."
Before authorizing the call-up, Bush declared a national emergency as required under the law, he said.
Although intended to provide troops initially for homeland defense and relief operations inside the United States, officials said the reservists also could augment US forces overseas. They also presumably could free active forces for use in any strike against those responsible for Tuesday's attack or the governments which support them.
The kinds of units that might be called up include air defense, airlift, intelligence, military police, medical, logistics, engineers, civil affairs, search and rescue, chaplains, mortuary services, officials said. (Read photo caption below)
Those called up are required to serve for up to two years, but officials stressed they would be held only for as long as needed and that the military will first draw on volunteers.
The army plans to call up 10,000 reservists, the air force 13,000, the navy 3,000, the marines 7,500 and the coast guard 2,000, the Pentagon said.
The mobilization is one of the first public steps in US military preparations for what officials have pledged would be a sustained campaign against terrorists and states that sponsor them -- what Bush called "the first war of the 21st century."
US military leaders have turned to reserves in most major recent conflicts, such as the Gulf War and the Kosovo campaign, to carry out key combat support functions from policing to piloting military aircraft.
The Senate voted 98-0 to authorize the president to use force if necessary against those responsible for Tuesday's attacks, which authorities fear may have killed 5,000 or more.
PHOTO CAPTION:
The nose of a U.S. Air Force C-5 airplane is in the upright position and ready for loading at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif. Friday, Sept. 14, 2001. The base in on heightened alert following the attacks on the United States. California reserve units are being mobilized as part of President Bush's call-up of up to 50,000 reservists to active duty Friday and Travis has 3,500 reservists according to base spokesman Ron Lake who said it likely will take days for the Pentagon to tell units who is called up and when.(AP Photo/Bob Galbraith)
- Sep 14 2:47 PM ET