This may be one of the most important
stories I've read recently. It is almost two weeks old, but carried by a small media outlet. And of course, it isn't get any play in the "Main Stream Media." Our National Guard is under-equipped by up to 75% of their needs. And I think it is most important to say this isn't a new problem brought on my Iraq. Post 9/11 they were already 30 percent under-equipped. More below the fold.
In Louisiana, about 100 of the Guard's high-water vehicles remain abroad--even as the state continues to rebuild from Hurricane Katrina. Coastal North Carolina is missing nearly half its Humvee fleet, and Guard officials there said shortages have forced the state to pool equipment from different units into one pot of hurricane supplies. Vehicles are particularly crucial to hurricane response because they are often the only way to ferry ice and water through devastated areas.
"I think everyone this season is concerned about the capability of the National Guard and what we have," said Capt. Matt Handley, a spokesman for the National Guard of North Carolina. "We'll be ready, but hopefully we'll have a slow (hurricane) season."
The lack of equipment is not a new phenomenon, said Jack Harrison, spokesman for the National Guard Bureau, the administrative arm of the service. Even before the terrorist attacks of 2001, non-deployed Guard units had only about 70 percent of the equipment they needed, he said.
While more equipment is staying behind, more guardsmen are coming home. As of March, there were 55,000 guardsmen in Iraq and Afghanistan, down from 80,000 a year before.
A report from the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) last year shows major gaps in equipment that could be used to respond to a hurricane or other disasters. In May 2005, Guard units here had only about 8 percent of the tractor trailers they were allotted and none of the Humvees with added armor, according to the GAO report.
Do you feel safer? I sure don't. I also suggest you click here and read the 38-page GAO report on this topic. Maybe we should be taking some of the revenue lost from tax cuts to the richest 1 percent and buy our men and women tasked with protecting us the equipment they need.