National Guard: stretched to a breaking point

"The National Guard needs that equipment back home to support the homeland security mission," the Louisiana National Guard's Lt. Col. Pete Schneider told a reporter from WGNO, the ABC affiliate in New Orleans. Schneider said that in the event of a hurricane, Louisiana would need help from neighboring states.

Amid the Gulf Coast rubble and looting, it appears Schneider may have been right. "Missing personnel is the big thing in this particular event -- we need our people," Lt. Andy Thaggard, a Mississippi National Guard spokesman told the Washington Post Wednesday. Mississippi has 4,000 National Guard troops in Iraq.

Military experts have long said that repeated, lengthy deployments to Iraq are decimating the National Guard. Dispirited veterans are leaving the Guard in droves and recruiting has plummeted.

However, on Wednesday, the National Guard Bureau responded that it had more than enough troops to go around. Currently, 8,200 National Guard troops are responding to the disaster in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. While those states all have units deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, the National Guard said that it has not yet deployed all of its reserves to the Gulf Coast.

In addition to nearly 3,800 Louisiana National Guard troops already at work on relief efforts, the state has another 2,700 troops on hand. "Louisiana has 6,500 guard members available," said bureau spokesman Lt. Col. Mike Milord. "They have only used up about half of their force available." Mississippi still has another 5,000 troops in reserve, Milord said. "There are still forces in each state for the state to draw on," Milord said. He said the Gulf Coast states could also ask other, less affected states for help too.

In fact, late Wednesday, the Pentagon announced that 10,000 troops from 13 states outside the area would be divided between the hard-hit areas in Mississippi and Louisiana. And the Department of Defense announced it would send help from the active-duty military, including helicopters, a mobile hospital and Navy ships.

But the hurricane may very well launch new discussions about how far the country can stretch the National Guard, as it does double duty fighting terrorists and responding to forest fires and killer storms. (All of the Alabama National Guard units responding to Katrina have already served in Iraq, according to the Washington Post.)

Originally posted by WestPoint23
Souljah by tonight there will be 7,000 National Guardsman in New Orleans with another 30,000 on the way from all over the United States, and there will be 12,000 National Guardsman in the other affected areas.

Originally posted by Souljah

Are you sure that the Military can handle all the Tasks the Goverment is giving them?

I am saying this, General Custer:

Originally posted by WestPoint23
Well, if anyone here has a teleporting machine to get the National Guard from other states down there instantaneously I’m sure we would all appreciate it very much. What no such machine exists? I could have sworn that from the way you guys were talking there had to be some out there.

Anyway, it takes time to mobilize, equip and transport the troops, to the area. Then you have to set up what they are going to do and how to get to certain areas with 85% of the city flooded.

Apparently many of the National Guards are currently serving in Iraq

Are you sure that the Military can handle all the Tasks the Goverment is giving them?

loam
Really? What are they doing? Eating dough-nuts??

a terror attack on a similar scale will be met with the same languid response!

truthcanhurt
What if the 1000's of National Guard troops we keep hearing about
don't really even exist?

Where are these
guys and how long is it going to take them to get there?

I can drive from DC to LA in less time

We knew at least 24 hrs before landlfall that NO would be a direct hit

Are YOU satisfied with the answers you give?

Originally posted by marg6043


Right now here in GA the Red Cross is asking for volunteers to go down to Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi to help and they are offering training.

If we are asking civilians for help will this, does that mean that we are short of trained manpower from our national guard?

I wonder.

Originally posted by Nygdan

Please explain the activation process for national guardsmen, for active duty of indeterminate length, both in their home state and in other states.

It definitly would.

Short of havving massed barracks in every town and city, with soldiers on permanent activation, there will allways be delays on teh scales of days. New Orleans has to deal with the problem on its own for the time being.

Great, when can the releif volunteers expect you to show up?

Around noonish? Do you think that there might be something of a process that goes into their activation? Its not like a beeper goes off and they jump inot their car, putting a National Guardsman siren atop it and speed off.

Yes, it was idiotic, massively idiotic at every level, from the citizens who stayed all the way up to the president himself. Very, very, very stupid of everyone invovled. Now the price of stupidity is being paid. Agreed.

Your suggestion is to do what? A different president would've activated the guardsmen sooner? Can't we just replace the citizens with better and smarter citizens, ones who would've left the city long before this slow moving monster storm hit?

Originally posted by loam
If any of these numbers are true....where are they???? Why are the reporters not seeing them? And why did it take nearly 4 days to deploy them??? I'd point out that much of the language even acknowledges that there are not there YET, but are on their way??? Really? What are they doing? Eating dough-nuts?? Is this the type of speedy response anyone envisions for a disaster on this scale?

If anyone tells me this is about logistics, then fess up to the realization that a terror attack on a similar scale will be met with the same languid response!

[edit on 1-9-2005 by loam]