CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight - Transcript
CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight - Transcript
Thursday, June 9, 2005
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DOBBS: Severe droughts-and this one is no exception-often result in devastating wildfires. One of those wildfires has already begun in Arizona, where a rapidly-moving brushfire has forced the evacuation of at least 30 homes near Wickenberg.
The Bureau of Land Management tells us that fire has now grown to 2,000 acres. The bureau says the fire should be fully contained by tomorrow evening, however.
The governor of Montana faces what he says could be a fire season of historic magnitude after a seven-year drought in that state. Making matters even worse, about half of the state's National Guard troops trained to fight those wildfires are now in Iraq and serving in Afghanistan.
In a bold move, the governor asked the Pentagon to return his National Guard troops to fight the wildfires that could ravage the state. The Pentagon refused to send them home.
Joining me now is the governor of Montana, Brian Schweitzer.
Governor Schweitzer, good to have you with us.
GOV. BRIAN SCHWEITZER (D), MONTANA: Well, it's great to be back, Lou.
DOBBS: Governor, this decision of yours to request the return of your National Guard troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, on what basis did you do so, and what was specifically the Pentagon's reaction?
SCHWEITZER: Well, you know, this has been an ongoing process. It's been about five years of really one of the worst droughts in the history of Montana.
We were faced with the middle of the winter, where we had historically low snow pack. And, of course, snow pack is money in the bank. That's the water that will be in the rivers during the next year, and it's what restores the moisture levels in our soils.
So in the middle of the winter, we were looking at what could have been one of the worst fire seasons ever. So good management says, let's get the resources we might need in place if we do have that sort of situation.
So we just suggested that, how about if we rotate some of our National Guard folks home so that they're in our communities in case we have a blowup in fires. This is predictable.
July and August, that's when we have fires in Montana. So we thought it would be a great move to rotate the trooms home, give us a little bigger force in Montana when we needed them in July and August. And so we asked the National Guard and they said no.
DOBBS: Just straight out, no?
SCHWEITZER: Yes, they said, well, if you need somebody, we'll send somebody from other states. But the fires that we have in Montana are in wild lands. These are big mountains, and this is where we don't have roads.
You fight them with helicopters. You fight them with people that are trained to fly in mountains. There's not that many helicopter pilots in the National Guard that are trained. You can't send me somebody from Indiana.
DOBBS: And the fact of the matter is that most of the Black Hawk helicopters that are used are also in Iraq and Afghanistan, aren't they?
SCHWEITZER: Here's my assets. We have 12 Black Hawks, nine are in Iraq. We have three --- three of the Chinooks, the CH-47s, but we don't have all the crews that we need.
The Black Hawks will carry about 660 gallons of water, and those big old Chinooks will carry 2,000 gallons of water. When you've got wildfires, you need to have a helicopter on them when they're three or four acres, not 3,000. If they get to 3,000 acres, they'll probably burn until it snows in September.
DOBBS: Governor, you also have taken note of the fact that not only are you facing a wildfire season that could, as I think you put it, be of historic magnitude, but you're also concerned about what is obviously the changing role of the National Guard in this country. How concerned are you about that?
SCHWEITZER: A dozen years ago, we had a military that was approximately 10-1 active duty to Reserve and Guards. Now we're about 2-1.
So we're calling on our guards in a higher proportion than we have at any time in history. And so I think we need to start a discussion between the governors who, like myself, are the commanders in chief of our National Guards, and those that are in charge of the active forces. Because part of the Guards' mission is homeland security, whether it be natural disasters, such as fires or floods or tornadoes or hurricanes, or some of the other unthinkables.
When you take our assets such as our manpower and our helicopters and our planes, when you take our trucks, our jeeps, I think you have to have a discussion about how can the governors be responsible for our homeland security in each and every one of our states and then take away our assets.
DOBBS: An important question. And one that we'll be exploring on this broadcast, I assure you, for some time.
Governor Brian Schweitzer, thank you for being here.
SCHWEITZER: Great to be back, Lou. Thanks.
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