BN>  MS>     Face it, that company of Puerto Rican National Guard troops 
BN> could
BN>  MS> have been there the day after.  It's not far.
BN> 
BN> I guess you are not aware of the time it takes to get a call-up
BN> of National Guard in a non-war situation. First the local
BN> government ahs to request the assistance from the governor then
BN> it goes to the President of the U.S. The next step is that the
BN> President has to request the assistance from the Penetagon due to
BN> is being outside of the contintial U.S. Then it goes down the
BN> chain of command till it gets to the local unit's officers. Then
BN> the men themselves are called. The men have usually 24 hours to
BN> report. The earliest that a National Guard Unit can get out is
BN> usually 36 to 48 hours. Then there has to be a place for them to
BN> land and that also was not the most accessible thing. It actually
BN> was 5 days before equipment was able to be delivered other than
BN> air drops.
    Don't blame it on "equipment".
    The NG troops were just MPs there to provide law and order, not 
engineering troops to remove debris.  The 48 hours that you say they could 
have been there in is a whole lot less than five days.
    Shadow government?  I don't see FEMA as capable of handling hurricane 
problems on small islands after that incident!
--- Simplex BBS (v1.07.00Beta [DOS])
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