Wartime Shortages Hamper National Guard

(CBS)  Kansas' governor says tornado cleanup efforts are being hamstrung because the state National Guard is on a mission in Iraq.

But the Kansas National Guard isn't alone with its equipment shortages. According to the chief of the National Guard, it's a national epidemic.

Listen to what he told a Senate committee last month about the state of a Guard unit that had just returned stateside from Iraq.

"He doesn't have a problem of old equipment. He has a problem of no equipment," Lt. General H. Steven Blum said. "His unit, when it came back in November, came back to two Humvees that were left because they were not good enough to go to war — not suitable to go to war — and that's the equipment that he has in his unit today."

The rest of the Humvees were either destroyed, damaged or left behind in Iraq. According to the head of the National Guard Association, which represents 500,000 Guardsmen, it's the same in every unit, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

"Kansas is not an isolated situation. Every state is significantly below level for equipment across the National Guard," Brig. Gen. Stephen Koper said.

The best-off state, Ohio, has 65 percent of its required gear. The national average is just 40 percent.

"You name it, we are short of — this is meat-and-potatoes basic items," Blum said. "I'm talking about 'dozers, graders, loaders, backhoes, dump trucks."

As was painfully obvious in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, equipment shortages translate directly to the speed with which the National Guard can respond to a natural disaster or a terrorist attack. "The lack of equipment makes it take longer to do that job, and the lost time translates into lost lives and those lost lives are American lives," Blum said.

The Guard has been promised $21 billion worth of new equipment, but even if the money comes through it will take five years to get it all.

[rodnacious]

Ever heard of Milspec whatsnext987? If you had, you wouldn't be making that statement. You are forgiven though!

[rodnacious]

Ever heard of Milspec whatsnext987? If you had, you wouldn't be making that statement. You are forgiven though!

[whatsnext987]

Blum said. "I'm talking about 'dozers, graders, loaders, backhoes, dump trucks." Come on. These are all widely available all over the country. Can't they borrow or rent some from a construction company? Do they have to be sitting around unused at the Guard until an emergency happens? What a waste of resources. I am sure that in an emergency, any patriotic construction company would let the guard use some equipment. There could be written agreements/contracts for such cases.

[aaabee-2009]

http://www.alternet.org/story/43045/?page=1

Well, that is Bush, taking care of Iraq and leaving his own country to limp along as best as we can, while he sends our kids overseas. He has sent our security overseas, our manpower, our funds all overseas.

We need our manpower, our funds, our committment to security HERE in the US, for our people, not for the security of some other people in some other country. What Bush wants protected is in Iraq, not in the US. We are over there for the benefit of an important oil nation, trying not to let it be taken over by those unsympathetic to America.

While Bush protects Iraq, America can limp along without any changes to what ails this country.
We do without our Guard while debt piles up for a foreign war. We are getting used to it, Bush hasn't attended us at home for all his presidency. But he sure is taking care of Iraq. Follow the link and read why.

[watsond2525]

LTG Blum, Chief of the National Guard Bureau, offered what now seems eerily prophetic testimony to Congress a few weeks ago about State National Guard forces being unable to rapidly respond to State emergencies due to overseas deployments. Someone should interview him.

[mangod4]

I am the decider. And theres no oil in Kansas.

[xenoclastic]

Kansas Guard: "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto"