Tuesday, December 14, 2004

National Guard Deaths

Here's a sobering fact emerging from the Iraq War, and one that might lend some credence to Army National Guard complaints that they're getting second-rate hand-me-downs from the Pentagon; USA Today reports that Guard troops are one-third more likely than active-duty military to die in the conflict.

The Dec. 12 story reads:

"According to figures furnished by the military branches, the active Army has sent about 250,000 soldiers to Iraq, and 622 have been killed. That works out to one death for every 402 soldiers who have deployed. About 37,000 Army Guard soldiers have been sent to Iraq since the war began and 140 have died there — one fatality for every 264 soldiers who have served, or about a 35% higher death rate."

The newspaper offers several explanations for the higher death rate, including fewer drills among part-time soldiers and a number of particularly ominous missions, such as driving convoys and guarding bases.

"The elevated death rates among part-time soldiers are a significant shift from the past," the article states.

"During most wars in the last century, the full-time military took most of the casualties, and their troops were much more likely to die in battle than Guardsmen and reservists.

"In the 1991 Persian Gulf War, for example, the Army Guard suffered no fatalities out of 382 U.S. deaths. A total of 94 Army National Guardsmen and no reservists were killed out of 58,209 U.S. deaths in Vietnam.

" 'It's a changed paradigm,' says Richard Stark, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. 'We have completely crossed the line in terms of what it is to be a citizen-soldier.'"





1 Comments:

At 12:39 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The use of the Guard reminds me of the current policy on the deficit. We pretend we have what we need, we use up all our resources and then some, and we do nothing to disturb the false sense among our general populace that there is no need for those of us outside the military to sacrifice anything of our own now for the mess we are in. We will let our children inherit a crippled economy and we will punish anyone who ever had anything to do with the military by never letting their service end. We won't train the Guard or equip them properly, because that would require more resources, but we sure will let them die for us. And when the next big terrorist event occurs and we need the Guard at home, heaven help us, because they won't be here.

 

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