Though notably hedging on any actual impact, the commander of the National Guard Bureau has said that overseas deployments may have impaired the Guard’s reaction to Hurricane Katrina.
The deployment of thousands of National Guard troops from Mississippi and Louisiana in Iraq when Hurricane Katrina struck hindered those states’ initial storm response, military and civilian officials said Friday.
Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said that “arguably” a day or so of response time was lost due to the absence of the Mississippi National Guard’s 155th Infantry Brigade and Louisiana’s 256th Infantry Brigade, each with thousands of troops in Iraq [emphasis added].
“Had that brigade been at home and not in Iraq, their expertise and capabilities could have been brought to bear,” said Blum.
Blum said that to replace those units’ command and control equipment, he dispatched personnel from Guard division headquarters from Kansas and Minnesota shortly after the storm struck.
I could also “arguably” say that this is a rather poor excuse. Obviously, sufficient Guard units were available in nearby states. If these were needed earlier than they arrived, then they were not mobilized quickly enough. Beyond that, any possible loss of a day on the scene and able to contribute by out-of-state units may also have occurred had the Louisiana and Mississippi units been home, as the storm has caused an estimated $1 billion damage to military installations in its path and wreaked havoc on transportation and local communication.
Blum went on to elaborate on planning for potential Guard deployment related to Katrina.
Blum also said that in a worst-case scenario up to 50,000 additional Guardsmen per month will be needed in Louisiana or Mississippi over the next four months to continue providing relief, law enforcement and other post-hurricane services.
Those 200,000 troops, if needed, would represent nearly two-thirds of the approximately 319,000 Guard troops available nationwide.
Blum said his staff has almost completed a plan for 30-day rotations of Guard units so that no one will have to serve in the Gulf Coast for more than a month.
In this matter, I do agree that the stress of overseas deployments will only compound the strain demanded by Katrina.
There are about 30,000 Guardsmen in Iraq and a smaller number in Afghanistan, Kosovo and elsewhere overseas.
Out of curiousity, when was the last time you heard a demand for an exit strategy from Kosovo?