Troops to spend second Thanksgiving on border
WASHINGTON
For the second year in a row, approximately 5,000 troops will be spending Thanksgiving on the U.S.Mexico border. But the circumstances have greatly changed from when they initially deployed a year ago.
When the first active duty units set up camp in South Texas last November, they lived in tents with no electricity and ate the military’s prepackaged meals. The rapid build-up was in response to the President Donald Trump’s direction to bolster border barriers with hundreds of miles of concertina wire in order to counter large numbers of migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. from Mexico.
That Thanksgiving was a lot like the ones service members had experienced while deployed overseas, with hundreds of turkeys, pies and all the traditional fixings shipped to them and served in a central dining facility.
Now, “active duty service members supporting the Southwest border mission are either lodged in hotels along the Southwest border or are supporting the mission from their home duty stations,” said U.S. Northern Command spokesman Air Force Maj. Mark Lazane.
There are approximated 2,700 active duty troops, and 2,350 National Guard troops assigned to the border at present. National Guard troops have been at the border in larger numbers since spring 2018, and have also been regularly deployed to respond to increased illegal border crossings for years.
Among the active duty forces deployed there are about 1,450 in Texas; 150 in New Mexico; 650 in Arizona and 350 in California. So instead of a central meal, each Thanksgiving dinner will be coordinated by unit commanders and supported by local community donations,
Northern Command spokesman John Cornelio said. The USO, a military support organization, is assisting in some of those efforts, and the hotels where forces are staying are also pitching in, Cornelio said.
In addition, there are approximately 300 active duty troops supporting the mission from their home duty stations, and “some troops may be permitted to travel locally to spend time with friends and families,” Lazane said.
National Guard Thanksgiving plans were also being coordinated by units in each state. For example, the New Mexico National Guard has about 18 Service members from nine different units serving. Those members are also living in hotels, and were deployed to support camera operations along the border.
For Thanksgiving, “service members will be on pass for the holidays,” pending mission requirements, so they can go home to their families, said spokesman Joe Vigil.
In Texas, where Guardsmen are also being housed in hotels, the military “is working with community outreach coordinators including the USO in conjunction with facilities provided by South Texas College and local hotels, to organize Thanksgiving celebrations,” spokeswoman Army Capt. Leyda M. Ocasio-Kanzler said. Meals will be provided by volunteer organizations for service members who are not on leave to go home for the holidays, she said.
The military has spent the last year helping reinforce and replace aging portions of the existing barriers and fencing, which cover about 650 miles of the 2,000 mile border with Mexico. The military has also been asked to add security at major ports of entry when caravans of migrants arrived in mass numbers and provide aviation, medical and logistics support.