Jade Helm 15 — a two-month, seven-state Army Special Operations
training exercise — is scheduled to start Wednesday, prompting concerns
among some residents, especially in Texas, where the governor ordered
the state guard to monitor it.
A town hall meeting this spring
drew hundreds of residents to one of the training sites in central
Texas, where an Army spokesman was inundated with questions from
conspiracy theorists who had traveled from across the state. Late
Tuesday, the Army released a statement again attempting to allay
residents’ fears by clarifying what soldiers will be doing, and where.
The training will be on private land and military installations,
including National Guard training centers and an Army Reserve center in
Arizona; Eglin Air Force Base in Florida; Camp Beauregard in Louisiana;
Camp Shelby, the Naval Research Laboratory, Stennis Space Center, and
the U.S. Navy Seabee Base in Mississippi; Cannon Air Force Base and
Otero County in New Mexico; Carbon and Emery counties in Utah; and more
than a dozen sites in Texas.
The plan, Army officials say, is to
develop new warfare tactics and procedures in a landscape similar to
combat zones in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
“The public can
expect little disruption in their day-to-day activities since much of
the exercise will be conducted in remote areas,” the statement said.
“The most noticeable effect the exercise may have on the local
communities is a slight increase in vehicle traffic and the limited use
of military aircraft and its associated noise.”
According
to the statement, civilian government officials, “will receive regular
updates as the exercise progresses,” the statement said.
Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office will receive daily updates from a team of four
to five officials from the Texas State Guard, one of three branches of
the state-owned Texas Military, stationed with a U.S. military liaison
at a joint operations center at the guard’s Camp Mabry, north of Austin,
according to an aide.
“We are serving more than anything as a communications facilitator between the military and residents,” the aide said.
“It
is important that Texans know their safety, constitutional rights,
private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed,”
Abbott wrote last April to the commander of the state guard.
In
Texas, soldiers are expected to train at Camps Bullis and Swift, as
well as more than a dozen counties, including: Burleson, Brazos,
Edwards, Howard, Hudspeth, Kimble, Martin, Marion, Real, Schleicher and
Tom Green.
Some residents expressed concern after listening to
reports from Austin-based TV and radio host Alex Jones, a conspiracy
theorist who has warned of a government takeover for decades. Jones
seized on the exercise as proof. Just last week, protesters gathered at
the Alamo convinced that its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site
was a prelude to a United Nations takeover.
A
handful of Texans said they don’t trust state officials and plan to try
to monitor Jade Helm themselves. Some already have created “Counter
Jade Helm” Facebook pages and a website to submit activity reports and
map their surveillance.
“We’re the neighborhood watch of this
program,” said Eric Johnston, a retired Arizona firefighter and
sheriff’s deputy who now lives in Central Texas. He plans to drive to
two of the training sites Wednesday in Bastrop and Junction to search
for activity.
“It would be wonderful if we pull up and there’s two
guys in Humvees getting coffee at Starbucks. I don’t think that’s going
to happen,” said Johnston, 52, of Kerrville.
Johnston said an
Army spokesman told him at the Bastrop meeting that no foreign troops
would participate in the training, but Johnston was still concerned.
“Would
you like to wake up tomorrow morning and see a dozen Russian soldiers?
Or U.N. troops?” he said, adding, “Do I think we’re going to be stormed
by Russian troops? No. Not yet. My opinion is they’re practicing
something they’re going to do in Afghanistan. Look at the places they’re
picking: steep terrain, desert. … It’s the secrecy that hurt them.”
Johnston
said 50 people are involved in monitoring statewide, including eight in
Bastrop. Some, including Johnston, are licensed to carry concealed
firearms, but he stressed that, “We’re there as the neighborhood watch:
see what they’re doing, observe and report.”
Johnston said many
locals oppose Jade Helm and are “supportive of our action.” But there
are also those who support the exercise, in Bastrop and statewide.
When
former Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst wrote a piece in the Dallas
Morning News urging citizens to support the military exercise this
spring, he noted that, “Unfortunately, some Texans have projected their
legitimate concerns about the competence and trustworthiness of
President Barack Obama onto these noble warriors. This must stop.”
In
Bastrop, retired Texas A&M social work professor Ed Skarnulis said
residents are more worried about outsiders descending on their town to
monitor Jade Helm than they are about the soldiers.
“They think it
reflects poorly on the county, and there could be economic
repercussions if the county is perceived as a place full of conspiracy
theorists,” said Skarnulis, 75.
“They represent a tiny proportion
of the population,” he said. “The majority of people in our county are
appalled by that sort of attitude. I hope we can put this to rest.”
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-texas-jade-helm-military-20150714-story.html
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