Military Silently Patrols U.S. Border

The two young soldiers, faces camouflaged, armed with M-16 assault rifles and .45-caliber pistols, lay in the desert sand 25 miles west of Yuma, Ariz., peering into Mexico. The darkness of a Southern California night made viewing conditions perfect for their night-vision equipment.

The National Guard soldiers from the Los Alamitos-based 40th Infantry Division were there to observe and listen, part of the military’s silent war on drugs along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Some nights there’s no activity,” one said. “We haven’t come close to being in a firefight, but you do feel a rush when you’re doing your job right--looking at a group of people without them knowing you’re there.”

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The military had been patrolling the border in secret until gunfire erupted last month in Redford, Texas, when the leader of a Marine team from Camp Pendleton shot an 18-year-old U.S. citizen, killing him. In January, a U.S. Army Green Beret wounded a Mexican drug smuggler during an exchange of gunfire near Brownsville, Texas.

California National Guard officials recently invited a Times reporter to spend three days and nights with infantry soldiers along the border.

Eager to demonstrate that their units operate under strict rules of engagement, the National Guard for the first time allowed a reporter to visit a front-line listening and observation post in what has become an increasingly controversial part of the war on drug smuggling.

Last week, Congress approved a measure that would authorize the stationing of up to 10,000 U.S. troops along the Mexican border to help stop illegal immigration and combat drug trafficking.

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But the Mexican ambassador to the United States, Jesus Silva Herzog, said that putting troops on the border “would be complete nonsense.”

On the front lines last week, the two soldiers from Team Wolf at the desert listening post were aware of the danger and prepared to defend themselves, even though no shootings have been reported on the California border. As they hid beneath a creosote bush, their weapons were “at the ready” and their bulletproof vests were laced uncomfortably tight.

The troops involved in such reconnaissance patrols say they feel the adrenaline, fear and boredom common in combat.

For hours, the only sound was the wind blowing eerily across the crackling brush. Occasionally, the soldiers would cock their heads in the direction of Mexico, only 30 yards away. Their conversation was limited to whispers.

About 90 miles to the west, soldiers from the Guard’s Team Shadow, part of the 40th Division, looked through heat-sensitive gun sights mounted on four-wheel-drive vehicles pointed toward Mexico and the nearby O’Neill Valley, a route favored by smugglers.

The men from Team Shadow, hunkered down on two mountain peaks, detected dozens of people crossing into the United States or gathering on the Mexican side of the border.

“This is what we do best. We catch dope,” said the Team Shadow leader, a staff sergeant who asked that his name not be used because it could jeopardize his safety. “But we’re fighting guys who have unlimited funds and resources. They operate seven days a week, and sooner or later they find a way to bring their loads across.”

Security is a big concern for the troops. Soldiers working on a border fence and road are kept under surveillance by observers with binoculars on the Mexican side, prompting the soldiers to cover their name tags. In addition, both sides monitor each other’s radio communications.

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Also positioned along the border were Marine Force Reconnaissance teams, and at the south end of the Cleveland National Forest, Special Forces troops kept a lookout for suspicious aircraft, which officials believe are owned by drug smugglers and have been spotted entering the United States.

In addition to observing the border crossers, Team Shadow kept a Mexican army patrol vehicle that pulled to a stop a few feet from the California line under special observation.

In the past nine months, U.S. soldiers and their commanders say, they have spotted other Mexican army patrols operating as far as four to five miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

A spokesman for the Mexican government confirmed that his country’s troops have strayed into U.S. soil from time to time by accident. However, U.S. military officials believe that the Mexican soldiers could not have moved that far inland by mistake.

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Military officials said that Army, Marine Corps and National Guard troops have conducted more than 3,000 missions along the 1,700-mile border in the past seven years. Their impact on drug traffic is unclear.

Critics have protested the government’s decision to use soldiers to perform a job that traditionally had been left to civilian law enforcement agencies.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), a former Border Patrol chief in El Paso, said he has never supported the military patrolling the border without the presence of Border Patrol agents.

Reyes, who worked with the military when he was with the Border Patrol, said he is especially troubled by the absence of Border Patrol agents at the listening and observation posts.

“The military trains for combat. The job of patrolling the border is tough enough when you’re a professional, well-trained Border Patrol agent,” Reyes said. “Don’t make it tougher by putting people out there who aren’t bilingual or familiar with the culture and customs of people they observe.”

Despite the criticism, Reyes said that the military’s contributions along the border have been, for the most part, “positive and effective.”

But Roberto Martinez, director of the American Friends Service Committee border project in San Diego, an immigrants rights group, calls the presence of the military on the border “warmongering gone amok.”

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“We’re totally opposed to having the military on the border. Soldiers are trained to kill the enemy and not to interact with civilians,” he said.

U.S. officials say the troops are there only to support the Border Patrol and are prohibited from detaining suspects or making arrests. Soldiers are ordered to report suspicious activity to Border Patrol agents, who are responsible for apprehending suspects.

California National Guard spokesman Capt. Stan Zezotarski bristled at the charges of militarization.

“We and the [Army and Marines] are here at the request of the Border Patrol, which is the lead agency,” he said. “The rules of engagement limit us to counter-drug missions and to fire only when there is imminent danger to our troops.”

Zezotarski said National Guard soldiers will not go into an area unless Border Patrol backup is available.

Still, the military buildup along the border is undeniable.

Camp Morena, a National Guard post near Campo, which had been kept secret until officials allowed a Times reporter to tour it, is used as a forward operations base by Green Berets and Marines for border drug reconnaissance missions in San Diego County.

Camp commander Capt. Wade Rowley said that in 1996, 4,200 troops temporarily assigned to border missions used the small base, which opened Jan. 7, 1993. Rowley is also in charge of Team Engineers, the National Guard unit assigned to construct a steel fence and road along the border from the Pacific Ocean to a point just east of Jacumba, Calif.

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In Imperial County, troops operate out of a separate secret desert base. Officials asked that its location not be identified. The compound, guarded by Marines carrying M-16 rifles, has maps of the area that include locations of Mexican army garrisons throughout northern Baja California.

The dangers facing the soldiers are very real.

In the past month, four Border Patrol agents working on the border have been shot at by snipers on the Mexican side. One agent was wounded in the incidents, which authorities believe were instigated by drug traffickers.

In two previously unpublicized attacks, unarmed National Guard engineers came under fire in May while erecting a steel fence in Bell Valley, a rugged, isolated area of boulder-strewn mountains near Campo, said Rowley, who added that those gunmen were also firing from Mexico.

There were no injuries, but the engineers were pulled out of the valley for 15 days after the shootings. They recently returned to the area, wearing armored vests, but are still prohibited from carrying weapons.

Since the patrols began on the California-Mexico border, soldiers have spotted people walking across the desert, cars driving into the United States and aircraft evading radar by flying low and in the steep border canyons that meander north through the Cleveland National Forest.

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Officials also said they have spotted Mexican military patrols crossing into the United States. In September 1996, U.S. troops told the Border Patrol of a Mexican army Humvee at Mt. Signal, about 350 yards north of the international border and minutes from California 98, according to briefing papers and photos that commanders shared with The Times. Responding Border Patrol agents detained three Mexican soldiers and seized numerous automatic weapons, according to the documents.

The Mexican soldiers were eventually released, along with their equipment. U.S. officials said it is highly unlikely that the Mexican patrol could have been lost, because Mt. Signal--a rock monolith in the middle of a flat desert--is a well-known U.S. landmark.

Jose Antonio Zabalgoitia, spokesman for the Mexican Ministry of Information, confirmed that three Mexican soldiers had been briefly detained last September.

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“This is not like Texas, where there is a river that clearly marks the border,” he said. “Both countries have treated these incidents as honest mistakes, which have been resolved at the local level.”

But the U.S. soldiers on the ground view the border intrusions as dangerous and potentially deadly.

“We have confidence in the training that our soldiers have received and trust them to use good judgment,” said Capt. Zezotarski. “The border is a dangerous area. The smugglers are armed. The militia nuts who are out here looking for illegal aliens are armed. The potential for violence is high enough already without having someone else’s army stumbling across the border.”