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New Mexico National Guard PFC Nick Varela handles his fear of serving in the Middle East by focusing on his training. SPC Chris Lanear watches the news and dabbles in Arabic. Both underwent a weapons course designed to ready them for action in Iraq. Watch them and other New Mexico National Guard members rush bullet-shredded cars in the New Mexico desert as they prepare for the possibility of shipping out. Watch »

Photo by Steven St. JohnTribune

Tribune

Members of the New Mexico National Guard's Alpha Company train with live ammunition on Kirtland Air Force Base. The unit, based in Rio Rancho, was created a little over two years ago as a part of the Guard's shift in focus away from air defense. "Air defense was useful in the Cold War when we faced an enemy with an air force," said Brigadier Gen. Kenny Montoya, the commander of the New Mexico National Guard.

Photo by Steven St. JohnTribune

Tribune

Spc. Chris Lanear chats with a fellow member of the New Mexico National Guard at Kirtland Air Force Base. Lanear says an alert order - meaning his company might be deployed to Iraq - has gotten his attention. "Before, I didn't really pay much attention during drills," he said. "I didn't take it very seriously. Now I train harder. I get dirty."

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It's an alert order. It only means they might get deployed.

But as the soldiers of Alpha Company oiled up their machine guns on a dusty firing range one recent Saturday morning, they said they could do the math well enough.

An infantry company plus a troop surge plus an alert order probably only adds up to one thing, they said.

Goodbye, New Mexico. Hello, Iraq.

"It kind of clicked when we got that order," Spc. Chris Lanear said, pulling out his earplugs during a break from the firing line.

"Before, I didn't really pay much attention during drills," he said. "I didn't take it very seriously. Now I train harder. I get dirty."

Out on the range, a Department of Energy facility on Kirtland Air Force Base, other National Guardsmen crawled around cacti, firing bursts of live bullets at a trio of woebegone sedans parked in front of a berm.

"Get up here, soldier!" one sergeant yelled back at a young man struggling through the dirt. "Don't you give up on me!"

"I'm not giving up," the soldier answered.

Between bursts of fire, their breath echoed in their heads. Earplugs are the Army's standard.

Few if any of Alpha Company's men have served overseas. The unit, based in Rio Rancho, was created a little more than two years ago as a part of the New Mexico National Guard's shift in focus away from air defense.

"Air defense was useful in the Cold War when we faced an enemy with an air force," Brigadier Gen. Kenny Montoya, the commander of the New Mexico Guard, said.

But with the American military now facing enemies with no airplanes and few fixed targets, air defense had become something of an afterthought, Montoya said.

"We shifted to light infantry because we wanted to bring that attitude of being a soldier first. The infantry soldier is the best leader because they're brought up having to lead."

While Alpha Company, roughly 130 soldiers and part of the 200th Infantry Regiment, hasn't been deployed before, they're being trained by Guard soldiers who have. Those trainers make up what the Guard calls its Combined Arms Training Company.

Although the training company doesn't have an official unit designation and, in a sense, doesn't exist on Army rolls, it's real enough to the men being trained.

Most of the trainers wear unit patches on their right shoulder, symbolizing combat duty. Some wear Ranger patches as well.

They pepper their yelling and bawdy commentary with stories from the front lines. As the company inspects the considerable damage their machine guns have inflicted on the three cars, Sgt. Jose Astorga mentions some might be wondering how well their body armor will hold up under fire.

By way of an answer, Astorga relates a story from his tour in Iraq, when he was stabbed in the abdomen by an Iraqi with a bayonet. The bayonet broke, he said.

"Your equipment is your best friend," Astorga told the gunners. "You have to have confidence in your gear."

But equipment, and specifically the lack of it, is an issue on the minds of many in the National Guard.

Chief Warrant Officer Richard Gwilt, a logistics officer assigned to Alpha Company, said the unit has less than half the machine guns it's assigned. They have no M-4 carbines, relying instead on older and heavier M-16s.

"They always tell you, you get everything at mob station," Gwilt said, referring to the stateside mobilization stations where deploying units get three months of intensive training before heading overseas.

"But everybody I've talked to that already went says as soon as you get there, they start laughing at you. (You) say, `They told us it was at mob station.' "

The reply, Gwilt says: "You believed that joke, too."

Montoya said New Mexico units that have been sent overseas have gotten the equipment they need at some point in the deployment process.

"It's more of an issue from a training standpoint," he said. "Our experience has been that out units will fall in on their gear."

But New Mexico's congressional delegation last month sent a letter raising concerns about equipment shortages to the secretary of the Army, who has since been fired amid the scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Among other things, that letter says helicopter evacuation crews from the New Mexico Guard were forced to remove medical equipment from their older-model helicopters to make them light enough to fly during one recent deployment.

New Mexico's non-deployed Guard units rank last in the country in equipment readiness, the letter states.

Montoya said equipment issues have long been a problem for the Guard, which is funded by the federal government.

"We're looking at 30 years of mismanagement of the National Guard, and that's not going to get fixed overnight."

Even ammunition has been an issue, he said. The Army's standard is that stateside soldiers fire 200 rounds downrange a year, about as many as Alpha Company's gunners fired off in a few minutes.

"The Army doesn't agree with me on this," Montoya said. "If I'm going to put people in danger, I'm going to make sure they really know how to handle their weapons."

But equipment shortages not only affect units training for possible deployment, they also hamper the Guard's state missions, Montoya said.

An engineer unit based in southern New Mexico - one of the first units Montoya said he'd call on in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack - doesn't have any bulldozers or other heavy equipment, only some trucks, Montoya said.

A military police unit he would like to use to bolster State Police DWI checkpoints only has half of its assigned equipment.

For the soldiers in Alpha Company, there isn't much to do but shrug. As an old military saying goes, that's not in their lane.

Sgt. First Class Eric Giles, a platoon sergeant, said his men have other things to think about as they face a possible deployment, like their families and jobs.

And first-aid training. And house-to-house combat. And convoy duty. And the list goes on.

Most expect the mobilization order to come this spring or summer, but it might not.

"Regardless of what they tell us today, that could change tomorrow," Giles said. "But right now, morale is high. People are focused."