Checking the Legal Precedents, Twice at Least: Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia has asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to explore the “legal framework governing a President’s power to use the regular armed forces to restore public order” in situations like the “large-scale, protracted emergency” created by Hurricane Katrina or something other than a natural disaster. Warner, who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee, says Congress will be doing the same. In Warner’s view, the “only entity in the United States that has the personnel, equipment, training, and logistical capacity to lend support to the National Guard and other state entities in an emergency of this scale is the Department of Defense.”
Clearing jungle and laying asphalt in tropical heat may not sound like fun to most people, but it’s a way of life for Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers (RED HORSE) Airmen, who have spent the past year or so restoring World War II-era airfields on the Pacific…