Iowa Guard set for largest deployment in yearsBy Mike Glover - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Feb 16, 2010 13:46:23 EST
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa National Guard is facing its largest deployment in a generation but will still be able to handle domestic emergencies, the guard’s adjutant general said Tuesday.
Brig. Gen. Timothy Orr told a joint session of the Legislature that officials from nine Midwestern states have met to coordinate efforts should a domestic emergency require assistance.
“This meeting resulted in a regional assessment of available manpower and equipment, agreements to support mutual aid requests and a decision to make this meeting an annual event,” Orr said during an annual report on the condition of the Iowa National Guard.
He said Guard units throughout the region are facing the same pressure, with deployments likely to grow this year as the nation’s commitment to Afghanistan increases.
More than 3,000 Iowa guardsmen are scheduled to be deployed later this year, the largest single deployment since World War II. That has some worried about the ability of the guard to respond to domestic emergencies because so many are overseas.
Rest of article at:
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/02/ap_iowa_guard_deployment_021610/