Maj. Gen. Edmund Zysk; Warned U.S. of Ill-Prepared Guard Troops

Maj. Gen. Edmund D. Zysk, an influential former National Guard leader who helped persuade federal officials to reverse a trend in budget cutbacks that he said severely undermined the citizen soldiers’ readiness, has died. He was 62.

Zysk, former commander of the vast Los Alamitos-based 40th Infantry Division of the National Guard, died May 10 of a heart attack while vacationing in the Lake Tahoe area. He lived in Huntington Beach.

Four years ago, Zysk attracted statewide and Pentagon attention when he said that for the first time in 25 years the California Guard was so far below minimum readiness standards that it would be unable to handle a massive fire, flood or riot. National Guard troops, although primarily federally funded, can be mobilized by the governor to respond to disasters as well as be called to active duty with U.S. armed forces.

“We didn’t have the equipment or the parts to maintain what we had. I was going to have problems accomplishing the mission given to me. I had to speak out,” Zysk said shortly after his retirement two years ago.

Zysk said that when he was summoned to National Guard headquarters in Washington, he expected to be berated for his candor. Instead, he was praised for exposing the problems, and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Dennis Reimer soon asked to meet with him.

“It’s very unusual for a four-star [general] to ask to meet with a division commander, especially a National Guard commander,” Zysk said in 1999. “But he wanted to know about the funding shortage and equipment problems.”

Zysk spent two days showing Reimer around California’s National Guard facilities. Not longafterward, the California part-time troops got their first additional training funds in years.

Before accomplishing his personal lobbying coup, Zysk had told The Times in 1997 that reduced funds would mean scaling back weekend field training by two-thirds. That, he said, would prompt many of California’s 14,000 Guard troops to “vote with their boots. They’re going to walk.”

Troops continue to revere Zysk for his courage to take the budget problem public.

“As a result of Ed’s speaking out, the Guard’s in much better shape than it was,” retired Gen. Bob Brandt told the Sacramento Bee after Zysk’s death was announced. “He was a . . . good commander who took over the division at a tough time, then did an absolutely outstanding job.”

Zysk directed National Guard troops in responding to such disasters as the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the 1996 Northern California floods and firestorms and earthquakes throughout the state.

He served as deputy commander of the 40th Division before assuming full command in May 1996. The 40th is the state’s largest National Guard unit with detachments headquartered throughout the state.

Born in St. Louis, Zysk earned a bachelor’s degree from Cal State Sacramento and master’s degree from Golden Gate University. He began his military career with six years as an enlisted Marine.

Zysk joined the California Army National Guard in 1966, served as an infantry officer and took helicopter flight training. He was president of the state’s National Guard Assn.

Widowed in 1993, Zysk remarried and is survived by his wife, Jacqueline; his mother, Sophia Zysk of Sacramento; son, Michael; daughter, Lisa; stepson, David Bambacigno; and sister, Rita Graham.

Sacramento services were conducted Wednesday. A second service is scheduled at 11 a.m. Tuesday on the parade grounds of the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos.

Memorial donations may be made to the National Guard Assn. of the California Scholarship Fund.