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Napolitano: National Guard essential to homeland security

  • Published
  • By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
  • National Guard Bureau
NASHVILLE, Tenn., --  The National Guard is essential to homeland security, Secretary Janet Napolitano told an audience at the 131st National Guard Association of the United States conference Sept. 13.

"I came today to say ... 'thank you' for the service the men and women of our National Guard provide to our country, both domestically and internationally, day in and day out," said the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. "The National Guard has such a proud tradition: It's one I embrace, it's one President Obama embraces, and we deeply, deeply respect."

Napolitano drew on the National Guard's capabilities as governor of Arizona from 2002 to January. "I quickly discovered that the Guard is an incredible asset to this country and provides a service that is unmatched," she said.

She was one of the first governors to call for the National Guard to assist the Border Patrol on the Southwest border, an effort that became Operation Jump Start from 2006 to 2008.

"We were experiencing waves of illegal immigration in numbers that people who didn't live down there could only imagine," she said, noting that the Border Patrol apprehended 500,000 people in a single year in her state of six million people at the peak of the crisis.

"The Guard returned the call, as they always do."

Napolitano listed the Guard's service in Afghanistan and Iraq, during Hurricanes Katrina and Ike - and, more recently, after a Kentucky ice storm and flooding in North Dakota, where, she said, "Business returned to normal much more quickly than it would have without the Guard."

Responding to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, "The Guard was such an essential part of that effort," Napolitano said. "If ... such a thing were to happen again ... the Guard is such an essential part of the planning."

September is National Preparedness Month designed to encourage Americans to prepare for home, business and community emergencies.

"You are part of our culture of preparedness," Napolitano told more than 4,000 active and retired Guardmembers and their guests, including military and political leaders from each of the 54 states and territories and the District of Columbia.

"We don't need to be living in a culture of fear, but we do need to have a culture of preparedness and resiliency," she said. "When I say 'resiliency,'
what I mean ... is the ability to respond, respond quickly, effectively, be trained for that, be able to go at a moment's notice, be able to serve, be able to help those who have special needs - and for those purposes the Guard is always there."

Every American must take responsibility for preparedness, she said.

"This is not just the government," Napolitano said. "It is a collective responsibility of every American to have a plan, to know what to do in case of an emergency and to undertake some basic training in preparedness and resiliency."

The upcoming flu season requires particular personal preparedness.

"We are already seeing the harbinger of a very, very tough flu season with a new strain of flu," Napolitano said, though she said the H1N1 influenza is not currently comparable with the 1918 flu pandemic that killed tens of millions worldwide.

"We are in a pandemic, because it's already in all 50 states and a number of countries around the world," she said. "Every adult ought to go ahead and get your regular seasonal flu shot."

Getting the regular seasonal flu shot now is important to keeping down absenteeism and so healthworkers can focus on the H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available.

"The early news about the vaccine and the testing is very, very optimistic,"
Napolitano said. "When the vaccine becomes available, we're going to need every healthcare worker in this country working to vaccinate school-aged children, because they are the most susceptible to this flu, ... up to and including college age."

Having to give regular flu shots at that time will be a distraction, she said. "We don't want to divert them onto seasonal flu shots at the same time."