Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 26, 1994                   TAG: 9411280048
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Associated Press and The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VA. DIVISION PART OF 1ST GUARD DEPLOYED OVERSEAS

Members of the Virginia National Guard's 29th Infantry Division will be part of the first National Guard task force to man multinational outposts along the Egyptian-Israeli border.

The deployment is part of a plan approved by Defense Secretary William Perry to use reservists in many peacetime roles now performed by regular forces.

Recent military operations in Haiti, Rwanda, Cuba and the Persian Gulf have exposed cracks in the combat readiness of America's 1.6 million-member military and the use of reserves is aimed at reducing the strain on active-duty troops.

The Virginia-based task force, comprised primarily of soldiers in the 29th Division, will deploy in January for six months in the desert on the Sinai Peninsula. The 29th Division is commanding the mission.

The task force will become part of the Multinational Force and Observers, a peacekeeping force on the Sinai Peninsula established when Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979.

The task force normally is made up of active-duty soldiers, but with the armed forces shrinking and military commitments likely to remain high, the Defense Department is scrambling to avoid a crisis.

Pentagon officials are proposing that many of the 1 million members of the National Guard and Reserves of the various armed services spend their annual training time performing real operations, including peacekeeping missions overseas, rather than drilling at home. Proponents of the plan say the reservists would receive valuable experience while relieving overworked regular troops.

``They'll watch for normal traffic activities or unusual traffic patterns,'' said Sgt. Major Sam Cubbage of the Virginia unit's tasks. ``It's probably a realistic mission for the National Guard.''

The soldiers, now training at Fort Bragg, N.C., will man observation outposts along the border for 21 days before moving to another post, said Judy Cook of Lynchburg whose son, Timothy, 21, is among those going. After several weeks spent at the outposts, the soldiers will spend a week traveling, she said.

``He'll get the opportunity ... to tour Israel ... see the pyramids,'' Cook said. ``Right now, I see it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him. I'm really excited for him.''

Timothy Cook and the other soldiers won't just be watching traffic. They'll have the chance to further their training, too.

``It's a unique situation, really,'' Cubbage said. ``They'll have barracks, go out and work on the outposts for several weeks and then do college preparatory courses and infantry training.''

In response to the plan approved by the Department of Defense, Maj. Gen. Donald W. Shepperd, the head of the Air National Guard, said the guard was examining how to train its ground-based air controllers to serve aboard AWACS radar planes, which have experienced severe crew shortages. Shepperd said in a telephone interview that the guard also could increase its missions in Europe and in Bosnia.

In perhaps the most ambitious plan, Reserve combat brigades could be rotated a month at a time through overseas assignments like protecting Kuwait, replacing some of the active-duty combat troops serving there.

``The question is: Can we make smarter use of the $10 billion we're going to spend on Reserve training every year anyway?'' said Deborah R. Lee, the assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs. ``We want to get more bang for our buck.''

Many details of the Pentagon's plan still need to be worked out, but its outlines have won the blessing of Perry, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and several influential lawmakers.

Pentagon officials say there might be additional transportation costs to send reservists on overseas operations but that the benefit to regular forces would vastly outweigh any added expense.

``This will take the heat off the regulars, and I'm very supportive of the idea,'' said Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, the Army chief of staff.

But some critics say the plan's ambition may be its undoing.

``It's a reasonable idea until you start looking at the practical implementation of it,'' said Martin Binkin, a military personnel expert at the Brookings Institution, a policy research organization in Washington. ``As you increase the amount of time the reservists have to spend away from home, it's going to hurt retention.''