CHARLESTON - Gov. Mark Sanford is in Texas through the end of next week, training as a medical evacuation officer in the Air Force Reserve, his office said.

Sanford, a captain in the Reserve, arrived Monday at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, said spokesman Chris Drummond.

Kenny Pruitt, a Reserve spokesman in Charleston, said he didn't immediately know whether the two weeks in Texas would complete the governor's training for the position.

The training meant Sanford was not in Columbia for the opening of the legislative session this week.

Lawmakers are expected to consider his plans to cut in-
come taxes, restructure state government, establish tax credits for parents of private-school children and change liability laws.

Sanford joined the Reserve two months before filing to run for governor in 2002. Some people have been concerned he could be deployed to Iraq while in office, but that doesn't seem likely.

Only three of the 118 reservists in Sanford's 315th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron are mobilized for duty in the Middle East.

The unit has not deployed more than 40 people at a time, and Sanford is not in line for deployment, Pruitt said.

Slightly more than 4,000 of the Air Force Reserve's 76,000 personnel have been mobilized, said spokesman Lt. Col. Bob Thompson.

In aeromedical units, less than 5 percent have volunteered for the current four-month rotation and slightly more than 2 percent have been mobilized, said spokeswoman Capt. Michele Gill.

Crews made up of nurses or emergency medical technicians are more likely to be mobilized or volunteer than administrative teams, she said.