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Police lose out to Guard duties Some officers have been activated by the National Guard, leaving agencies to 'fill the blanks' By PAUL FATTIG The already lean ranks of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department were made thinner today by the departure of two traffic division deputies. The Medford Police Department also lost three officers. The five police officers are among 160 members of the Oregon Air National Guard unit based at Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls called up for active duty, a period which could last a year or more. They are expected to provide domestic security. The departments are among police agencies in Oregon and Northern California with National Guard members who are being activated. Two Ashland Police Department officers already have been activated. "This is part of what you do - part of the downside," said Deputy Greg Halley, who is married with children. But responding to a state or national emergency is also something that he volunteered to do as a member of the guard, Halley said. A nine-year veteran of the Air Force, Halley is a senior airman in the Air National Guard. Fellow veteran deputy Charlie Retzer was also activated. Their departure leaves the department's traffic division a bit strapped, said Lt. Dewey Patten, head of patrol. "Our schedule already barely fills our needs," he said. "Typically, we have three to four cars on the road. We're going to have fewer cars out there." But the department will continue its 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operation, he said. In Medford, Police Chief Eric Mellgren is adjusting to the loss of three officers on Tuesday to activation in the Air National Guard. "It'll make it difficult," Mellgren said, noting that the thin blue line in Medford will now be a little thinner. The activation meant the loss of a patrol officer, a drug unit officer and a gang street drug unit officer, he said. "We'll fill the blanks as best we can," he said. "Their jobs will be waiting when they get back." Those being called up for active duty are not expected to be deployed overseas, said Oregon National Guard spokesman Maj. Jeff Julum in Salem. "We haven't sent anybody anywhere yet," he said of the nearly 500 activated since Sept. 11. "They are being activated to do security missions." That security included scrambling F-15 Eagle fighter jets from the unit's 173rd Fighter Wing to patrol the skies over Oregon immediately following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Other jobs include providing security for airports. Meanwhile, the 186th Infantry Battalion of the Oregon Army National Guard, based in southwestern Oregon, has received no calls to activate. "Not yet - call me in two weeks," said Lt. Col. Daniel Cameron, the battalion's commanding officer based in Ashland. With the Pentagon having already announced that it will call up some 50,000 members of the National Guard and Reserve to bolster the nation's defense, officers say there is a good chance more members will be activated. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.