There are currently several thousand National Guard soldiers being trained at Camp Shelby in southern Mississippi. I have a son in one of those units. They spent the days after Katrina's arrival in barracks playing cards, waiting for orders that never came. As soon as possible, they resumed training for deployment to Iraq.
They were given Labor Day off. A number of them volunteered to assist local military families recover from the disaster. Remember, this is their only day off during two months of heavy duty training and they wanted to spend it helping people.
Their request was denied.