GUARD CALLED ON FOR A VARIETY OF MISSIONS

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Like the active components of the military, the Missouri National Guard is expected to perform a variety of missions.

From the 135th Engineer Group in Cape Girardeau to the 1137th Military Police Company in Kennett, Mo., to the 1221st Transportation Company in Dexter, Mo., the Guard is trained to fulfill a a number of military functions.

However, Guard units around the state train for tasks that go beyond military readiness. Disaster relief, as those who remember the massive Guard presence in Southeast Missouri during the floods of 1993 and 1995 can attest to, is another of the Guard's primary functions. And a relatively new duty for the Guard is working with troubled teens.

The keys to fulfilling these missions, said Lt. Col Mark McCarter, the Guard's recruiting and retention manager, are training and experience.

"The Missouri Guard does a tremendous job of training soldiers and ensuring they are ready to meet their state and federal missions," McCarter said. "The true measurement of if that's true or not is can you perform the mission when you are called upon? The Missouri National Guard hasn't failed in any mission it's been given. We haven't had a unit called to war that didn't go to war. We haven't had a unit called to state active duty that hasn't met the requirements."

Despite being a part-time force with members training only 39 days a year, McCarter said experience plays a large role in preparedness. On average, Guard members are in their early 30s and have more than a decade of military experience, McCarter said. Members of the active military, he added, are in their early 20s, on average, and have just a few years of experience.

"Because of all that, we're more apt to do the mission with less training time," McCarter said.

The Guard has both state and federal missions. The latter primarily relates to being called to active duty during wartime or participating in overseas peacekeeping missions.

For peacetime missions in foreign countries, Maj. Gen. John Havens, the adjutant general of the Guard, said units are built with people who are able and willing to go on extended duty. Guard leaders in Washington, D.C., usually give Missouri units three years notice that they will be called up.

"We'll move people in and out of those units so we build units of people who really want to go," Havens said. "Now if the United States was ever involved in an all-out war, then, of course, all of us would be involved."

A relatively new initiative for the Guard is the Show Me Challenge program for at-risk youth. The program, which started in 1998, operates out of Camp Clark in Nevada, Mo.

In is designed to provide education and discipline to high school dropouts ages 16 to 18 who voluntarily enroll. Much is expected, physically and mentally, of participants in the 22-week residential phase, which includes military training but focuses on classroom education and job skills training.

"It starts out 10 times worse than basic training," said Lt. Tamara Spicer, the Guard's public affairs officer.

However, it is not a boot camp for those in trouble with the law. Participants can't be on probation or parole or awaiting sentencing by a court.

"There are kids from rich families that end up in this program because they got off on the wrong foot somewhere," Spicer said.

The residential portion is followed by a year-long mentoring phase to help participants apply what they learned to their personal and professional lives. Federal money provides 60 percent of the funding, with the state paying the remainder.

The program's fifth and largest graduating class to date completed the program Saturday. The next class will begin in January.