Guard deployments hamper states' disaster response

[Ian David]

Guard deployments hamper states' disaster response
Kent Hoover
Washington Bureau Chief

When Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell served in the National Guard, reservists were known as "weekend warriors."

That nickname is history.

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, two-thirds of Pennsylvania's National Guard have been activated, Rendell says. Guard units now account for more than 30 percent of the Army forces in Iraq, according to the Government Accountability Office.

"The whole nature of the guard changed after 9/11," Rendell says.

This widespread deployment of guard units for combat missions is not only straining reservists and their employers, it's also compromising the ability of guard units to respond to disasters in their home states, Rendell and other governors say.

The problem isn't so much personnel, it's equipment.

The Department of Defense can't activate more than 50 percent of any state's National Guard personnel without getting permission from the state's governor. Rendell says Pennsylvania still has enough guard members in the state to respond "to anything other than a cataclysmic event."

But guard units have only one-third of the equipment they need to respond to domestic disasters and terrorist attacks, says Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who heads the House Government Reform Committee.

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