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National Guard Still Short of Equipment

By James W. Crawley, Media General News Service, jcrawley@mediageneral.com

While National Guard units fighting in Iraq have enough equipment, stateside soldiers lack the resources necessary to handle natural disasters or another terrorist attack. National Guard Still Short of Equipment

Published: Wed, September 19, 2007 - 10:27 am Last Updated: Wed, September 19, 2007 - 10:34 am

WASHINGTON - While National Guard units fighting in Iraq have enough equipment, stateside soldiers lack the resources necessary to handle natural disasters or another terrorist attack, the Guard's leader said today.
Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, National Guard Bureau chief, said the Guard has only half its needed equipment -- helicopters, trucks, radios and engineering equipment -- and it needs an extra $13.1 billion over the next five years to get to 90 percent readiness levels for Army guard units.
"It's not getting better as fast as I want," Blum told defense reporters this morning.
While recruiting and training are at the highest levels in Guard history, the general said chronic neglect of Army National Guard equipment needs before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, plus six years of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, have left the Guard with equipment shortages at home.
Since 9/11, the Guard has "robbed Peter to pay Paul" -- pulling equipment from stateside units to equip soldiers bound for the war zone, he said.
No state has more than 70 percent of the equipment it should have and some states have as little as a third, Blum said. The Air National Guard also is short to a lesser extent, he added.
Because Guard units need to respond to a disaster within minutes or hours, Blum said borrowing equipment from other states takes too long and is too risky.
"My problem is not with 'predictable' events, like a hurricane," Blum said. "It's with the 'no-notice' events, like a tornado or an earthquake or a terrorist attack."
Army leaders are trying to get more equipment for the Guard, he said, but he worried it would take too long.
While the Pentagon wants to send National Guard units overseas for one year with five years stateside, Blum acknowledged that most Guard units are getting only three years at home before returning to Iraq or Afghanistan.
"Are we stretched? Absolutely," said Blum. But, he added, "The National Guard is resilient. It's a tough, tough group."
Asked about legislation proposed by Sen. James Webb, D-Va., that mandates troops get equal time at home as on deployment, Blum approved of the concept but said it would be too inflexible during wartime.
"It's well intended, but the effect will create some other problems," the general said. "I agree (with Defense Secretary Robert Gates) that prescribing in law the dwell time ties the hands of the military leadership."