Effort to Block State Guard Flight to Panama Planned

Opponents of the Reagan Administration’s Central American policy will attempt to block Gov. George Deukmejian’s authority to allow three California Air National Guard planes and their crews to fly to Panama on Friday.

Two liberal groups, Americans for Democratic Action and the National Lawyers Guild, and three individuals on Wednesday announced plans to appeal to the Los Angeles Superior Court for a temporary restraining order that would block the flights.

The planned move to attempt to limit the governor’s power was the latest round in a state and national controversy over the use in Central America of the National Guard--state reserve troops, most of whom are civilians when not on duty.

The California National Guard’s dispatch of 30 guard military police to Honduras in April was criticized at the time by Democratic legislators, who tried to strip funding from the Guard if the missions continued.

In the dispute that followed, it was learned that the California Air National Guard had been flying supply missions throughout Central America for eight years. A spokesman for Deukmejian said the governor was unaware of the air missions.

Three C-130s attached to the 146th Tactical Airlift Wing, with 60 crew members, are scheduled to leave their base at Van Nuys Airport on Friday for a two-week training session in Central America.

The groups held back the suit at the last minute Wednesday. As Deputy California Atty. Gen. John Crimmins waited in a courtroom to defend the state, William Smith, representing the National Lawyers Guild, said the request for a restraining order would be submitted today because the suit needed minor wording changes.

Ralph Fertig, representing Americans for Democratic Action, said the complaint would challenge the authority of the governor to send guardsmen out of the country in the absence of a declaration of war or national emergency by the federal government.

The governor is the commander-in-chief of the state Guard, except in times of war or national emergency, when the President can order the Guard federalized, incorporating it into the regular federal military forces.

Smith said the order was being sought because of “the controversial nature of the missions.”

“We can’t do anything about the fact that Reagan was elected President of the United States and is following his own foreign policy. But as citizens of California, we can show that we don’t want to go along with it,” he said.

The suit will also challenge the state’s right to spend tax money on missions outside its borders, Smith said.

Kevin Brett, Deukmejian’s deputy press secretary, said California governors have been approving Pentagon requests for temporary overseas missions for the state National Guard since 1950. He said the California National Guard rotates with the Guard from other states on two-week missions.

Brett claimed the groups waited until now to contest the commonly used procedure in order to create an election-year controversy.

“Why did they wait until 1986 to breathe word one on the subject?” he said. “It’s because 1986 is an election year, the governor is standing for reelection and they are politicizing this process.”

Col. Don Foley, chief public affairs officer for the California National Guard, said the governor “is not so much sending the Guard as he is permitting the units and members to leave in response to a request from the Department of the Air Force, which is, of course, paying all its expenses.”

The Air Force owns the aircraft used by the Guard, Foley pointed out, and it is up to the Air Force whether California retains them.

“Common sense tells you that if I give you 16 airplanes and pay you to maintain them and fly them, and say that every now and then I want some of them back, it ill behooves you to say I can’t have three planes when I want them or I just may take them all back,” he said.

Foley said it has been common for years for Guard members to join regular U.S. military forces in training overseas. About 1,100 members of an infantry brigade from Central California served two weeks in Korea several months ago, he said, and some California Guard members served in Germany recently.

The Pentagon has said that about 10,000 National Guard troops from across the nation participated in exercises in Honduras last year and about 6,000 are scheduled to go there this year.

However, governors of some states--including Massachusetts and Maine--have refused Pentagon requests to send Guard units to Central America.

The 146th, the largest Air National Guard unit of its kind, routinely sends some of its 16 C-130s--four-engine propjet cargo planes--on two-week tours to Howard Air Force Base in Panama, from where the planes transport supplies and personnel to U.S. military installations and embassies throughout Central America, including Nicaragua, officials said.