Guardsmen Land in Panama Despite Suit

About 60 members of the California Air National Guard landed for training in Central America on Saturday after a judge rejected challenges to Gov. George Deukmejian’s authority to send them out of the country.

Three C-130 cargo planes carried the guardsmen to Panama from Van Nuys Airport, said Lt. Col Vic Rippe, air operations officer for the 146th Tactical Airlift Wing. Sixty guardsmen, including air crews and maintenance personnel, are involved in the mission, Lt. Col. Joe Jepsen said. All are volunteers.

The governor’s authority to send the guard unit out of the country was challenged by Americans for Democratic Action in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court late Thursday.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued for a temporary restraining order to prevent Friday’s three flights from getting off the ground, but Judge Warren Deering rejected the request and scheduled another hearing next month. The attorneys argued that state laws prohibit the governor from ordering the guardsmen outside the country on the request of the federal government unless there is a declaration of war or national emergency.

The state’s Air National Guard has been bringing military and embassy supplies to Central America since 1978. According to a National Guard spokesman, guardsmen from throughout the country have rotated two-week assignments in that region.

The latest mission was the second ordered by Deukmejian in two months. On April 30, guardsmen were sent to Honduras to provide security on a road construction project 120 miles from the Nicaraguan border.

The 146th has 16 aircraft and 1,500 personnel, most of them part-timers. About 300 people are in the full-time program, Jepsen said.