Troops pitch in at border

Nearly 1,000 guardsmen from California volunteer
By Rick Rogers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 20, 2006
OTAY MESA – Six weeks after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger agreed to have California National Guardsmen help secure the U.S.-Mexico border, nearly 1,000 troops have volunteered for the task.
Some are cutting better roads into the hills overlooking Tijuana.
Others are turning wrenches to fix U.S. Border Patrol cars, freeing up agents who now can focus on smugglers bringing in drugs and illegal immigrants.
Still others are being trained to do around-the-clock surveillance of once porous spots along the border.
Yesterday in Otay Mesa, officials from the Border Patrol and state National Guard offered a status report. They also gave a glimpse of the California piece of Operation Jump Start, an unprecedented effort to place 6,000 National Guardsmen along Mexico's border with California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.