The notices below about calling up National Guard Troops sends chills down my spine. My family is the only one that I know personally that has had a member recently in the Guard. That was my daughter who, following her graduation from Cornell, planned to pursue her medical education through the military. Her experience was actually excellent and she received a second degree qualifying her for a medical specialty. I met a number of her military buddies from diverse backgrounds and on the basis of her experience even recommended to an occasional student that he/she might follow this route. However, this was all back during the Clinton years when our military was a force for peace-keeping. And fortunately after her marriage and the arrival of children my daughter decided not to re-up and to do her medical training privately which she is now doing.However, she is a lucky one. Most of those in the National Guard are older. They saw their service as part-time — a stint of retraining during two weeks of the summer, a day out of a weekend once a month, and preparation for any emergencies that might afflict their state. These men and women are now putting at risk not only themselves but the parenting of their young children whom they are leaving behind for hazardous 15 month tours in Iraq or Afghanistan. If they do not return in a coffin, far too many of them are wounded physically or psychologically. This morning I watched with horror the report of the death this past week of a mom of 3 young children who was scheduled to return home this weekend!
Need I point out the obvious. The Bush administration has clumsily engaged us in at least one unnecessary war and now intimates that it might just engage in what Bush calls WW3? To quote from my signature below: “A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope.” (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
What can one say? We are a nation cruelly divided between those who are sacrificing their lives and those of their loved ones for the benefit of greedy military industrial complex profiteers who are running our country off the edge of the most dangerous of cliffs! Ed Kent]
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http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102107Z.shtml
National Guard Faces Call-Ups for 2008, ‘09
By Ann Scott Tyson
The Washington Post
Thursday 18 October 2007
The Pentagon this week plans to alert at least seven National Guard units to be ready for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008 and 2009 as the military’s reserve forces are increasingly called upon to relieve the strain on active-duty troops, officials said yesterday.
The call-ups are aimed at preparing forces to replace the approximately 13,000 Army National Guard troops in four brigades that will begin flowing into Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan over the next two months. In addition, they will help ease the burden on active- duty troops that has grown with the increase of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan this year, the officials said. Currently, there are about 170,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and 26,000 in Afghanistan.
“All the active component brigades have been used as part of the surge, and the requirements are not going away,” a National Guard official said. “You create holes when you surge units forward, and someone has to fill them,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the Pentagon had not yet alerted the units.
If Guard units are not called up as replacements, the Army will lengthen deployment times for active-duty soldiers beyond 15 months, or cut back their time at home to less than a year, the official said.
Officials declined to specify which National Guard combat brigades and other units would be called up, saying they want to notify families before an announcement. The plans to alert the Guard units were first reported by the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, a U.S. commander in Iraq said that the first of five Army brigades to be withdrawn would result from a shift in Northern Iraq where a brigade would expand its territory to cover a portion of Diyala province when another brigade leaves in December.
The National Guard troops will perform combat patrols, secure convoys and guard detainees, among other missions, officials said.
In January, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced that the Pentagon would lift some restrictions on Guard and reserve call-ups and allow some reserve units to be remobilized sooner than planned - meaning more involuntary call-ups for individuals. Meanwhile, he reduced the length of the mobilizations for reservists to a maximum of a year at a time, in contrast to the 16 to 24 months that had become standard.
National Guard leaders welcomed the change, because it allows them to remobilize entire units, rather than calling up individuals from a variety of units in a piecemeal fashion.
Nevertheless, the 12-month cap on Guard deployments means that the Army can expect to have those units in Iraq or Afghanistan for about nine months, as they need time to train. That, in addition to other factors, makes it difficult for National Guard combat brigades to serve interchangeably with active-duty Army brigades, and has created new frustrations for Guard leaders.
Guard combat brigades heading to Iraq in coming months, for example, have not been assigned as single unit to patrol large areas but, instead, have been parceled out to perform many smaller missions under the command of active-duty units.
For example, the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Indiana National Guard was asked to break up into 21 security companies rather than to deploy as a unified force, a decision that hurts the unit’s cohesion, said Maj. Gen R. Martin Umbarger, adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard. The Army has worked to keep the brigade leadership intact, even if the missions remain dispersed, Guard officials said.
Guard Names Brigades Tapped for Deployments
By Michelle Tan
Army Times
Saturday 20 October 2007
The Defense Department announced Friday that eight Army National Guard brigades have been alerted for deployment, seven to Iraq and one to Afghanistan.
More than 21,000 soldiers are affected by this call-up. They are scheduled to begin deploying in the summer in rotations that will continue into early 2009.
Two of the eight brigades recently alerted will replace two active Army brigades currently in Iraq. They are:
• 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division of Philadelphia. The unit is projected to deploy in February, 2009.
• 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team from Clinton, N.C. The 30th HBCT last deployed February 2004 to February 2005. The 30th BCT is expected to deploy in April, 2009.
Four brigades, ranging in size from 1,100 soldiers to about 3,000, will have a security force mission, and they will replace a capability currently being provided by more than 160 smaller, separate units in theater. Deploying these units as brigades will simplify the command and control for these missions. Security force missions include base defense and route security in Iraq and Kuwait.
All are projected to deploy in fall, 2008:
• 56th BCT, 36th Infantry Division, Camp Mabry, Texas. The brigade last deployed December 2004 to December 2005.
• 29th BCT, Fort Ruger, Hawaii. Its last deployment was December 2004 to January 2006.
• 81st BCT, Seattle, Wash. The brigade’s last deployment was February 2004 to March 2005.
• 45th Fires Brigade, Enid, Okla.
Another brigade alerted for duty, the 50th BCT of Fort Dix, N.J., will run detention operations in Iraq. About 4,000 soldiers with the 45th are projected to deploy in fall, 2008.
The 2,700 members of the 33rd BCT from Decatur, Ill., are slated to deploy to Afghanistan, where they will train the Afghan National Army. Some of the 33rd BCT soldiers are to deploy this summer; the majority are to head over later in the year.
These most recently alerted units will join more than 12,000 soldiers from four Guard brigade combat teams that were alerted for duty in April. They were to begin deploying in December and continuing through 2008.
The units alerted in April are the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team from Little Rock, Ark., the 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team from Oklahoma City, the 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team in Columbus, Ohio, and the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of Indianapolis.
Two of those brigades, the 39th IBCT and the 76th IBCT, have previous deployments. The 39th was deployed March 2004 to March 2005; the 76th was deployed April 2003 to May 2004.
A DoD announcement in January calls for Guard and Reserve troops to be mobilized for no more than 12 months at a time, which means soldiers must complete as much individual and small-unit training as possible before they leave for their mobilization stations.
Guard and Reserve leaders have said they want their soldiers to serve at least 10 months boots on the ground in order to maximize on mobilizations and give other units as much time at home as possible, pushing for units to be alerted for possible duty as early as 12 months before their potential deployments in order to make it easier to plan and conduct pre-deployment training.
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“A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope.” (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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6 users commented in " The Sacrifices of Our National Guard — For What? "
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You whining about what the NG is not supposed to do is pretty pathetic. There is no free lunch. I spent 23 years of service both active duty and National Guard. At no time during my entire career did I ever think I was less required to be called on during time of war than my active duty counterparts. Why? Becuase it’s part of the deal and I knew it. Countless deployments and time away from my home, family and employer is what is I knew was a real part of my service, no different from my AD counterparts. The all vonlunteer force is well aware that the possibility and dangers of war are very real. The nametape on the uniform didn’t say National Guard, it said US Army.
I’m one of those that is being called up and just like your daughter we VOLUNTEERED for the military because we understand that freedom isn’t free and we have the courage and fortitude to actually decide to stand up to the evil in the world. And don’t even bring up Clinton, his slashing of the military during his presidency is why we are so stretched thin now.
I eagrly await my chance to serve overseas in this war on militant Islam and hope and pray that my service will help to destroy those that wish America harm.
I’m, a serving member of the Oklahoma National Guard and there’s every likelyhood I’ll be going to Iraq with the Fires Brigade.
I’ve already deployed to Afghanistan in 2003 with the 45th Infantry Brigade and again in 2006 with the 180th Infantry Battalion.
I raised my hand to volunteer for the previous two tours, and while I don’t plan to go looking for this deployment I’ll cheerfully go if my name is called. The only reason I don’t volunteer is that I just got home from the last one in May and it’s nice to be home.
But there’s a job to do.
That is how we see our service in the National Guard. Yes, the day to day over the previous 8 years or my time in service before 2001 was part-time. But that’s not true now. Maybe you’ve heard; there’s a war on.
We don’t train only for emergencies that might hit our state. We are also a warfighting force and especially since 1975 with the implementaion of the Total Force policy, over half of the Combat power of the US Army is in the National Guard. GEN Abrams wanted it to be impossible to engage in a war of any length without committing the Guard. It worked. Especially when the Active Duty Army was cut from 17 to 14 and then to 10 Divisions of Infantry and Armor between 1991 and 1995.
Leaving aside your ignorant statments about profiteering, you should at least learn the history and purposes of the Guard before you rush in to defend what needs nor desires no defense.
We take care of you. Now let us do our job.
I just wish every person in the country would open his or her eyes as to what is going on! That is crap to say that Clinton adminstration put our military where it is today! The Bush Administration is the SOLE reason we are in the situation we are today. I am currently in the National Guard and will be deploying in two months with the 37th BCT out of Ohio. I am not happy. I am happy to serve our country and to help make this world a better place. I volunteered just like everyone else, but I didn’t volunteer to be thrown around like a piece of equipment and not a person. I am niether democrat or republican, and that is due to what our government has done in the last few years. I am disgusted at anyone who says Iraq is being successful. When 9-11 happened I will never foreget the feeling of sadness and anger I had. I wanted out country to go after these “terrorists” and give them what they diserved. But what did Iraq have to do with any of that? Come on people, open your eyes and don’t let political loyalty determine if you say this war is good or not. Look at the big picture, more and more Americans are dying every day in Iraq, which is just adding to the number of casulties of 9-11. Why didn’t our entire military strenght focus on Afghanistan to take out Bin Laden and Al Qaeda? They were the maniacs who killed so many Americans and broke so many hearts! The war is Afghanistan is greatly overlooked. All we hear about is Iraq. The opium growth in Afghanistan is out of control and that is funding more and more terrorists. I agree that Saddam was a horrible man and needed to be dealt with. But how has anything we have done made Iraq a better place. Do research on the history of Iraq, you will be amazed at what you find out. Britain was in control of Iraq for about 60 years until 1950’s and they threw in the towel. About every decade someone has tried to sack Iraq and failed miserably. There is way to much diversity between the religious sects there. WE NEED TO BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!!!!!! I do understand that one might say we can’t pull out because so many soldiers would have died in vain. So many soldiers have died alread due to the Bull-headed Bush administration! I am sick and tired of have “rich-boys” in charge of this country, especially one that didn’t fight or sacrafice his live in the Vietnam war. How can he have any idea what war is like. KBR and Haliburton have prospored way too much for flags not to be raised. For every soldiers plate in the chow hall the government is charged $24.00. And it doesn’t matter how much food is on it…… If you use a plate to cover a plate to keep it warm so your buddy can eat it later the government just paid $48.00!!!!! Wake up America. Lets do the right thing, since our Entire Government wont do it for us!
Your article is not a well-thought or researched piece of material. Your statements about the Guard in particular are extremely misguided. Kudos to the two veterans who wrote replies. Shame to my fellow Ohioan. Young man, one who whines loudly about the injustice of an operation on which he is about to embark (and by this time has been committed to; the 37th is now in Kuwait and parts of Iraq… but mostly Kuwait) belies the claim of proudly serving his country. I volunteered to serve in Afghanistan, and I would and probably will gladly serve in Iraq. I don’t absolutely know that it was completely necessary to invade Iraq; but even if Iraq did not possess WMD’s, the stated policy of our nation is that those who openly support terrorism will be held accountable. Saddam Hussein’s policy was to reward suicide bombers by paying $20,000 to their families. That is direct support of terrorism, and that was all that was required. One thing that I know about what we are facing is this; this is a global islamic insurgency. Afghanistan is not the only front, nor is it the only place where you will find Al Qaeda. Oh, and BTW, that tale about the KBR plate deal is a total fabrication. There are head-count sheets kept, and it has nothing to do with how many plates are used. When you shoot your mouth off, please know what you are talking about. I would like to take you to the woodshed and tan your hide for your attitude, your misinformation, and your shame on my home state and my Guard. I hope that somehow the dedication of those who have gone before you somehow creeps into your soul through the contact of your uniform on your body and the boots on your feet and you grow up some. Good luck, Sparky.
wow, this was all real nice to read before I joined. would you guys do it all over again given’ the chance or should I just stick to life as a civilian?
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