http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0308iraq-guard0308.html

War using up National Guard gear Domestic equipment stores fall short

Bob Deans Cox News Service Mar. 8, 2006 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - The war in Iraq has badly depleted the National Guard's domestic store of vehicles, weapons and communications gear, officials with the service say, leaving units nationwide with just one-third of the equipment needed to meet mission requirements for homeland security, the Guard's core task.

From tanks and radios to Humvees and rifles, equipment taken to Iraq by National Guard units is being worn out, blown up, lent to U.S. forces rotating into Iraq or given away to newly mustered Iraqi units at rates unprecedented in modern times, said Maj. Frank Holder, a special-projects officer for logistics with the National Guard.

The equipment deficit has not hindered operations or training in this country, Holder said. He said Guard units so far have been able to share gear from state to state as needed for deployments to Iraq and for addressing domestic crises, such as Hurricane Katrina.

"We haven't missed the bell yet," Holder said.

Independent analysts, however, have voiced concern that the drawdown in equipment could leave the country vulnerable, especially in the event of multiple disasters calling for attention from the National Guard.

"Right now, the Guard's equipment stocks are depleted," said Christine Wormuth, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan Washington think tank. "That's going to have an impact on their ability to do domestic relief missions."

The issue is expected to come up today, when the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves holds the first in a series of hearings aimed at assessing the needs of the forces as they transition from a strategic standby force to an operational arm of a military at war.

"It's a high-priority issue, it's one that's very much on the front burner," said Arnold Punaro, a retired Marine Corps major general who is serving as chairman of the commission. "As good as the people are, if they don't have the right equipment and they don't have it when they need it, they won't be as successful as they could be."

The 13-member commission was set up by Congress last year and charged with examining issues facing the National Guard and Reserves and reporting, by March 2007, its recommendations for change. House and Senate armed service committee members are scheduled to testify today before the commission, which will hear from Pentagon officials on Thursday.

For decades, the National Guard performed a chiefly domestic function, providing disaster relief and responding to civil disturbances such as urban riots. As such, the Guard has been deliberately underequipped. Before the Iraq war, Guard units averaged about 75 percent of the equipment required to fulfill their training and defense missions, Wormuth said.

National Guard units have played a major role in Iraq, however, where they made up half of all combat forces at one point last year, Holder said.


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