Reply #115: Summary: WaPo 8/31from what I see, the National Guard was trying to

[Gloria]

mobilize on it's own.......Here are the WaPo reports...

Northern Command was waiting for orders.

So we have 2 separate entities here...

the National Guard trying to help bolster the remaining Guard in the Gulf states...
Northern Command waiting for Bush.....



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

washingtonpost.com
Strain of Iraq War Means the Relief Burden Will Have to Be Shared
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 31, 2005; A14

With thousands of their citizen-soldiers away fighting in Iraq, states hit hard by Hurricane Katrina scrambled to muster forces for rescue and security missions yesterday -- calling up Army bands and water-purification teams, among other units, and requesting help from distant states and the active-duty military.

As the devastation threatened to overwhelm state resources, federal authorities called on the Pentagon to mobilize active-duty aircraft, ships and troops and set up an unprecedented task force to coordinate a wider military response, said officials from the Northern Command, which oversees homeland defense.

National Guard officials in the states acknowledged that the scale of the destruction is stretching the limits of available manpower while placing another extraordinary demand on their troops -- most of whom have already served tours in Iraq or Afghanistan or in homeland defense missions since 2001.

More than 6,000 Guard members were mobilized in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida when the storm struck on Monday, with the number rising to 8,000 yesterday and hundreds more expected to be called to active duty, National Guard officials said yesterday.

"Missing the personnel is the big thing in this particular event. We need our people," said Lt. Andy Thaggard, a spokesman for the Mississippi National Guard, which has a brigade of more than 4,000 troops in central Iraq. Louisiana also has about 3,000 Guard troops in Baghdad.

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