War Zone Duty Won’t Hurt Reenlistments, National Guard Says

WASHINGTON — Despite indications that Army National Guard troops are dissatisfied with prolonged spells abroad, the head of the National Guard predicted Wednesday that deployment to war zones would not drive soldiers en masse from the service.

Describing the deployments as “the first real test of the all-volunteer force in this country,” Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum downplayed the significance of a recent internal survey that found widespread unhappiness among soldiers returning from Iraq and other overseas deployments.

Reserve and National Guard soldiers make up 40% of the nearly 125,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

The survey taken last year of 5,000 returning troops indicated the rate of those members who might leave the National Guard could increase from the current 12.5% to more than 20%.

However, Blum likened the voluntary survey to asking a woman in labor if she would have another child -- adding that those who filled it out were more likely to have concerns.

The study indicated that many service members are “not exactly thrilled by what is going on,” Blum told reporters at a breakfast meeting of defense writers. “Now, am I concerned? Yes....But the sky is not falling and we are meeting our established goals for retention.”

Blum acknowledged that a potential drop in retention levels might be masked by so-called stop-loss orders temporarily preventing many National Guard members from leaving the service.

The use of National Guard and Reserve troops over the last 2 1/2 years has marked the largest sustained call-up since an all-volunteer military force was established after the Vietnam War. The increased reliance on National Guard troops has transformed a fighting force of part-time warriors that, military enthusiasts contend, was designed to fight either forest fires at home or World War III abroad -- but nothing in between.

But concern has spread on Capitol Hill, where members of Congress are fielding complaints from constituents.

“Concerns about morale and, potentially, about recruitment and retention are real,” Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday in questioning Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. “The risks posed to our Guard and Reserve system are real.”

Even Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), committee chairman and a staunch Rumsfeld ally, agreed.

“We are blessed with a military that has responded to these demands with extraordinary commitment, but even the best military has its limits,” he said.

Some senior officers in Iraq, speaking on condition of anonymity, have acknowledged anecdotal evidence of a potential retention problem, saying that soldiers who had signed up for reenlistment had withdrawn their papers after their tours of duty were prolonged.

Nearly four in 10 of the nation’s 120,000 National Guard troops joined after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and therefore knew about the likelihood of deployment, Blum said. The proportion of troops in Iraq from the National Guard and Reserve is expected to fall from 40% to 30% in the third round of troop deployments, slated to begin early next year.

Rumsfeld, who testified Wednesday in back-to-back hearings of the Senate and House Armed Services committees, said that only 7% of National Guard and Reserve troops had been involuntarily mobilized more than once since 1990.

“That means that the same people are getting stressed, and they’re getting used and used,” Rumsfeld said. “But the vast majority of the Guard and Reserve are not being used.”

Rumsfeld acknowledged the need to restructure the Reserve, something Pentagon strategists are considering as part of a worldwide study of forces. However, he emphasized to lawmakers that use of the National Guard and Reserve units was necessary.

“Each of us knew when we signed up that it was not simply to serve one weekend and two weeks-active duty,” Rumsfeld said, noting that some committee members had been National Guard members and reservists.

“We signed up so that if war was visited on our country, we would be ready to become part of the active force.

“And on Sept. 11, war was visited on our country. And if we were not to call up the Guard and Reserves today, then why would we have them at all?”