300 NC National Guard Head South

WWAY TV 3 RALEIGH, N.C. Governor Easley is deploying 300 National Guard troops to patrol the U-S--Mexican border. His office announced today that the 252nd Combined Arms Battalion will deploy to New Mexico for two weeks starting July 22nd. The Fayetteville-based unit had been scheduled for regular training that week at Fort Bragg. Easley says the deployment complies with a request from the U-S Department of Defense. In May, an Easley spokesman questioned President Bush's policies on the Guard after Bush requested up to six-thousand National Guard troops be sent to the border. Easley said the Guard already had an expanding role with frequent tours in Iraq and increasing domestic duties. Easley now says he would prefer to keep the state's 12-thousand troops in North Carolina, one of the nation's most hurricane-prone states, but that Guard units are spread thin in western states fighting wildfires.