Base commanders issue new restrictions on travel to Mexico

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Base commanders issue new restrictions on travel to Mexico
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, January 24, 2009

WASHINGTON — Weekend trips across the Mexican border might be a thing of the past for servicemembers stationed in the southwest.

Over the last month, military bases along the United States’ southern border have issued new rules regarding travel into Mexico, requiring their personnel to get advance written permission to make the trip.

Defense Department officials said there is no force-wide ban on vacations into Mexico by military personnel, but they noted commanders at those southwest bases have issued new restrictions on their own because of increased violence and drug activity in border towns.

Those include a number of units that have recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. Marines and sailors stationed in California — at posts such as Camp Pendleton, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and Twentynine Palms — and those at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona were informed of the changes over the last few weeks.

Master Sgt. Rhys Evans, spokesman for the I Marine Expeditionary Force, said the goal is to make sure Marines and sailors at those posts are aware of the situation in Mexico and have received some level of anti-terrorism travel training.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60201