An army popping at the seams

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An army popping at the seams
By David Isenberg

WASHINGTON - Two events of the past week illustrated the increasing stresses and strains on the US military as it tries to sustain both its "surge" in Iraq and its overall military presence in Iraq.

On April 9, the Pentagon named four National Guard brigade combat teams it plans to send back to Iraq. These four units have all seen action in the past few years, making this the kind of guard redeployment not seen since World War II.

The brigades will be deployed for a maximum of one year at any one time. That is tacit recognition of the delicacy of the deployments because normally National Guard deployments are between 18 and 22 months.

Although they are not scheduled to begin deployment until December, they are receiving alert orders now to provide them the maximum time to complete their preparations. These units will deploy as replacement forces for formations currently operating in Iraq. There are approximately 13,000 personnel in these four brigades.

The final determination of whether these units will deploy will be made based on conditions on the ground in Iraq. The units are: 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Little Rock, Arkansas ; 45th Infantry Brigade, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Indianapolis ; 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Columbus, Ohio.

These are essentially all units that have already been deployed abroad within the past three years. Two of them, the brigades from Indiana and Oklahoma, already did rotations in Afghanistan. And the one from Arkansas already went to Iraq. And the brigade from Ohio went to Kosovo.

The fact that these units have already been deployed in the past few years illustrates the unprecedented nature of the decision because under the Pentagon's own guidelines National Guard Units can only be deployed once, for up to two years, every five years.

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