National Guard struggles to fill changing role

[unhappycamper]

Sgt. Gabriel Herrera works on communications equipment in a military vehicle at Camp Slayer. When he joined the Guard in 2000, he said, “I thought, 'This is the National Guard.' If there are riots or fires, fine, but I figured at least I'd never see combat.” One-fifth of U.S. troops in Iraq are guardsmen.


National Guard struggles to fill changing role
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Oct 19, 2007 5:51:41 EDT

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — Gabriel Herrera was drawn to the National Guard by the poster of an infantryman rappelling from a Black Hawk helicopter — and by the fact he was unlikely to see combat.

“I was kind of lost,” he said. The part-time infantry job seemed like a perfect way to stay in shape and earn money for college.

Herrera, then 21, took the oath to defend his country in 2000 — but it may as well have been a generation ago, considering how much has changed for the citizen-soldiers.

“I thought, ‘This is the National Guard.’ If there are riots or fires, fine, but I figured at least I’d never see combat.”

But the Guard and reserve make up more than 20 percent of the U.S. force in Iraq and account for about 18 percent of the more than 3,800 soldier deaths since 2003. Iraq has redefined — perhaps permanently — the roles for fighters and their families in what once was viewed as a force of last resort.

“This is the biggest call-up since World War II, there’s no question about it,” said retired Brig. Gen. Stephen K. Koper, president of the Washington-based National Guard Association, which represents about 40,000 members.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/10/ap_guardchange_071019/

[NYVet]

1. It has been 7 years since 9/11, and 4 since the invasion of Iraq.

He has had at least 1 chance to get out due to his ETS since the attacks on NY and Washington. IMO, he is in NO place to complain about being deployed since he knew he had the possibility of going to war in the ARMY National Guard.