U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and several other special guests were on board Naval Air Station Meridian Wednesday for an orientation visit and tour of the Regional Counterdrug Training Academy (RCTA).

    RCTA was established in 1992 with the mission to provide no-cost, “street level,” case-making, counterdrug training skills to civilian law enforcement officers primarily from the states of Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Tennessee, but officers from across the nation and National Guard personnel involved in counterdrug efforts have trained at the facility.

    RCTA is congressionally funded through the Department of Defense (DoD), and is managed by the Mississippi National Guard.

    “These are defense dollars that provide a resource for local law enforcement, particularly counterdrug and narcotics law enforcement officers,” said Wicker. “RCTA provides every kind of state-of-the-art training that is needed, but would not be available to law enforcement officers without DoD money.”

    Brig. Gen. Augustus L. (Leon) Collins, adjutant general of the Mississippi National Guard, was also on hand for the tour.

    “Without this facility, the men and women who are out on the streets protecting us would not be trained as well as they are today,” Collins said. “Budget cuts do concern me, because the funding for this program is paramount to law enforcement training. Without the funds from Washington, we would not be able to train the number of students who come through and give them the quality of training that is needed.”

    In just a few months, RCTA will reach a staggering 90,000 students trained since the opening of the facility in 1992. Classes range from three-day courses to intense two-week courses. Subjects include Basic Narcotics Investigations, Undercover Investigations, Interview and Interrogation, Gang School and Survival Spanish.

    But there is concern that funding for RCTA will be cut along with other military and defense related facilities. Wicker said he does not see funding cut completely.

    “I think we can make the case for RCTA,” Wicker said. “But frankly I am concerned about the overall budget cuts proposed by the president. I think it’s too much. National defense and providing for the common defense are principal functions of the federal government. I am worried about the sequestration that came out of the budget deal last year. I was hoping that the committee could make a compromise that would avoid the defense sequestration, but we are going to have to deal with that now. I am concerned.”

    Wicker added that this is the time to be honest with the citizens of the United States about the budgeting process.

    “We haven’t taken up a budget in over 1,000 days on the senate floor. The house does its work when it comes to the budget and then the budget dies in the senate. We have a debt problem and we have a budget crisis in the United States of America, but it shouldn’t come out of the hide of the people who are protecting our nation and making us safe internationally.”

    Following the tours of the RCTA facilities, Wicker and the group of special guests that included Randy Stringer, Chief of Police for Iuka, Miss., who is the current president of the Mississippi Police Chiefs Association; Richard Veazey, Chief of Police for Tunica, Miss., who is the incoming president of the Chiefs Association; Inspector Garry Moore, Georgia Bureau of Investigations and president of the RCTA Board; and the City of Meridian’s Police Chief Lee Shelbourn, were treated to a K-9 Drug Recertification demonstration.

    “We want RCTA to continue. I don’t think that there is a state that is affiliated with RCTA that could provide the level of training and expertise that RCTA provides,” Moore said. “In the 21st Century we have to police differently that we did 25 years ago and this facility provides that type of training. If RCTA was not here it would be a great void.”

    Over the years, Chief Stringer has sent many of his officers to RCTA to receive training.

    “There are not a lot of places that you can go and get the caliber of training that RCTA provides,” Stringer said. “The Chiefs Association supports RCTA 100 percent.”