Florida National Guard faces equipment shortage

[bluedog]

Florida National Guard faces equipment shortage


Hope we have enough equiptment and soldiers to help us when the hurricane season hits..........Crist should make this an issue and have bush re-supply our Guard on the PRONTO



March 3 2007




Deployments overseas by Florida National Guard units have drained the Guard's equipment stockpile, from Humvees to night-vision goggles, to a third of levels before the 2001 terror attacks.

The reason? The gear often stays in Iraq or Afghanistan when troops return home.

But Florida Guard officials said the shortages, while significant, pose no critical threat to their ability to respond to a domestic disaster such as a hurricane yet.

In one case, a Guard truck company out of Marianna deployed with 71 heavy trucks. The unit returned with none.

"It's a huge drop-off overall," said Maj. Gen. Doug Burnett, who heads the Florida National Guard. "Do we need to do something about it? Yes. Is it getting low? Yes. Is it critical? Not quite yet. We're still good to go."

That message came as the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves reported in Washington this week that 88 percent of National Guard and Reserves units in the United States are rated "not ready" to deploy because of billions of dollars in equipment shortfalls


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http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-guard0307mar03,0,1206212.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-state

[Monkeyman]

1. Most units in the USA and Iraq face shortages