President Bush acted Friday to curb the fears of Americans prior to the influx of traveling during the holiday season, asking governors across the country to increase the presence of the National Guard in airports during the holiday season.

Bush praised efforts of National Guard troops since Sept. 11 in their actions to secure airports and energy plants.

“In order to increase security of airline travelers during the holiday season, we will increase by 25 percent the number of National Guard personnel who protect our airports and airlines and American travelers,” Bush said. “We are calling up these Guardsmen and women immediately.”

Gov. Scott McCallum acted on the recommendations of Bush and ordered the Wisconsin National Guard to prepare to send an additional 25 soldiers to various airports across Wisconsin.

Debbie Monterrey-Millett, spokeswoman for McCallum, said the governor was responding to a direct request from Bush.

“The president has specifically asked the governor to send more National Guard members, so the governor was more than happy to oblige,” Monterrey-Millett told the Associated Press.

National Guard troops were first deployed to state airports Sept. 27 with 90 troops stationed in seven of the state?s airports.

Although Bush announced the increase, it is up to state governments and governors to deploy the additional resources provided by the president.

“What the president will announce today are additional resources to help the states with deployment of additional Guard personnel,” said Ari Fleischer, press secretary for Bush. “The deployment decisions about how best to use the Guard is, as always in these cases of a state decision, left up to the governors to decide how much — where they want to deploy them, exactly where, at what airports.”

The National Guard presence is expected to last four to six months, with the 25 percent increase lasting through the holiday season.

“This increase in security will last through the busy holiday period, and it is in addition to more than 6,000 members of the Guard already mobilized at airports since Sept. 11,” Bush said. “These are temporary measures, and we believe they will help a lot.”

National Guard members have taken control of some measures of security and have assisted airport officials with security. Governors and specific airports determine the roles the added Guardsmen and women will play.

“Gov. Ridge is going to talk to the nation’s governors a little later today, he indicated they have flexibility on this,” Fleischer said. “And I think you can anticipate the Guard being involved in such things as monitoring passenger and baggage screening; monitoring gate activity; perimeter control; security for vehicles, garages, air-traffic-control facilities — all of that can come under the purview of what the Guard can do to help the local law enforcement community, which already has that under their watch, under their jurisdiction,” Fleischer said. “They are additional helping hands for local law enforcement.”

Bush also announced the necessity of the federal government’s involvement in airport security, which would come with the passage of the aviation-security bill.

“The federal government must take, and I believe will take, control of aviation security. I am pleased that both houses of Congress have passed a bill to do just that. And I urge Congress to work hard to resolve the differences between the two bills — they are not that far apart — and to get to my desk as quickly as possible a bill that will make air travel much safer for the American people.”