Blowback

Publishing date: 09.11.2005 07:37

As a veteran of a previous 155th Separate Armored Brigade (MS ARNG) mobilization, I am keenly interested in the potential second-order effects from the stateside military mobilizations for Katrina relief on operations in Iraq.

While Googling around for some of this information, I found this excellent paper (PDF, 3.2M, 64 pages) by CPT Les' Melnyk detailing the Gulf War I ARNG mobilization experience. I well remember one incident, which occured in a sister unit during my service at Ft. Hood:

Perhaps the most damaging roundout brigade mobilization story for the Guard came in early February, 1991, when 53 soldiers from Louisiana’s 256th Infantry Brigade - at that time training at Fort Hood - went AWOL or overstayed their passes, and while doing so complained to the local news media about the poor conditions they were experiencing in Texas. These complaints concerning such issues as poor food and living conditions, made while there was a shooting war going on in the Persian Gulf, were not well received by either the Army or the public... Regardless of their reasons, this very public breach of discipline was a black eye for the Army Guard delivered at the same time that their fellow Guardmembers were doing yeoman service in the Gulf. Most of the offending soldiers were discharged as a result.

Excerpted from Mobilizing for the Storm, by CPT Les' Melnyk.

Here's an issue that I'm betting will make some news in the next few days.

Mississippi guardsmen in Iraq refused leave time

By Washington Post
September 11, 2005

BAGHDAD - Scores of Mississippi National Guardsmen in Iraq who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina have been refused even 15-day leaves to aid their displaced families, told by commanders there are too few U.S. troops in Iraq to spare them, according to guardsmen.

About 600 members of the Mississippi Guard's 155th Brigade Combat Team, posted south of Baghdad, live in the parts of southern Mississippi and southeast Louisiana hit hardest by Katrina, Maj. Neil F. Murphy Jr., a spokesman with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, said by e-mail Saturday. The brigade is attached to the expeditionary force.

Guard members and relatives said in e-mails or telephone interviews that virtually all of the roughly 300 soldiers of the 155th Brigade's B and C companies had their homes destroyed or severely damaged in the hurricane. Eighty Mississippi Guard members have been granted emergency leave, Murphy said. The rest have been refused leave, told by their brigade command that all other forward operating bases "are tapped out and cannot send troops," one Mississippi Guard member wrote in an e-mail that was shared by a family member.

From a strictly operational perspective, leave during a deployment is clearly a luxury, and not an assured entitlement for anyone. Unit leadership must also carefully manage leave plans so that the unit is still able to accomplish assigned missions. However, given the "perfect storm" of large-scale reserve component mobilizations, the ambiguity of the Iraq war, the Katrina disaster, and the inequities (either real and perceived) between the regular Army and the Reserves/ARNG, this has the potential of becoming a public relations disaster.

What the article does not explain, however, is that the 155th is scheduled to return home at the beginning of next year, and that the unit leadership has already approved emergency leave for 80 soldiers (nearly a company's worth of combat power) from the brigade.

On a related note, a Lousiana unit of the 256th Brigade Combat Team is seeking "volunteers" to work (under state control, at reduced pay and benifits) storm relief immediately upon their return from a one-year Iraq deployment.

Bob

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