BOND MEETS WITH GUARD OFFICIALS

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- U.S. Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., will meet here with local officials and National Guard representatives from throughout Southeast Missouri Saturday to discuss plans to cut back on Guard units.

The meeting will be held at 2 p.m. at the National Guard Armory, 2626 Independence.

Bond, co-chairman of the Senate National Guard Caucus, has been leading the effort in the Senate to block the Pentagon's proposal for reductions in National Guard units.

Twenty-one National Guard units in Missouri, including ones in Cape Girardeau and Jackson, would be eliminated under U.S. Defense Department plans to cut spending.

Bond has said such a move "is short-sighted and just plain wrong-headed."

In Missouri, more than 2,300 Guard members would be affected by the cutbacks, along with 159 full-time federal employees. The cutbacks would result in an annual economic loss to Missouri communities of more than $20 million in combined state and federal funds.

Nineteen Missouri communities could lose all or part of their units. Besides Cape Girardeau and Jackson, they include: Charleston, Farmington, Fredericktown, Perryville, Portageville and Sikeston in Southeast Missouri. Other communities affected are Boonville, Fulton, Houston, Jefferson City, Kansas City, Macon, Moberly, St. Louis, Salem, Warrensburg and Whiteman.

"Local communities and states rely on the Guard for help in times of emergency," Bond said in a prepared statement.

"From sandbagging the Mississippi, directing air search and rescue operations and providing emergency communication to eradicating drugs, I called on the Guard as Missouri governor.

"Cutting the Guard means cutting its ability to perform these vital missions on the home front," he added. "It is an especially dumb idea to eliminate every Southeast Missouri unit, which would be called on to respond to an earthquake in the region."

Bond said, "The nation relies on the National Guard for trained units to serve alongside the active duty military at a moment's notice.

"Our Missouri Guard has served in the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Berlin Crisis, the Vietnam War, the Panamanian conflict, and they're still in the desert of the Middle East.

"To slash them now would be a huge mistake," said Bond.

He acknowledged that savings must be achieved in the defense budget. But, he said, it would be unwise to make cutbacks in the Guard when it is the nation's most cost-effective force.