Pentagon tapping 8 Guard units for duty

Pentagon tapping 8 Guard units for duty
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Oct 17, 2007 19:07:10 EDT

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is preparing to alert eight National Guard units that they should be ready to go to Iraq or Afghanistan beginning late next summer, the Associated Press learned Wednesday.

The U.S. military is reaching out to more Guard units in an effort to maintain needed troop levels, ease some of the strain on the active duty Army and provide security for ports, convoys and other installations.

According to defense officials, seven of the units would deploy to Iraq and one to Afghanistan. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the orders had not yet been signed and the announcement is not expected until the end of this week.

Two of the units will be full combat brigades heading to Iraq between next summer and into 2009 to serve as part of the rotation with active duty troops. There are 20 combat brigades in Iraq, but under plans mapped out by President Bush and his top commanders that number will gradually drop to 15 next year as the U.S. reduces its troop presence there.

Those two Guard brigades would include about 3,500 soldiers each — generally the size of a combat brigade. But the other five going to Iraq will be much smaller brigades that are tailored for specialized support operations, mostly security and detainee operations. Their sizes vary, but some would be about 1,000 troops.

~snip~

There are now 171,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, largely because several units are overlapping as some move in and others move out of the country. Once those transitions are complete and the drawdown begins, the level of troops in Iraq could drop to as low as 135,000.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/10/ap_nationalguard_071017/

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