Iraq effect shakes National Guard

When two soldiers in Sgt. Edward Rose's unit died in Iraq this month, he couldn't hug and personally comfort his wife, Jennifer, who knew both men and their wives. In fact, just that week, Mr. Rose learned their time apart would grow as his tour as a military policeman in Iraq was extended well into next year.

What Rose did promise his wife that he would quit the Rhode Island National Guard when his current enlistment ends. Instead of staying for a full 20 years as he'd always intended, Rose now plans to get out as soon as possible. His wife says he's unable to bear the thought of another long separation.

Around the country, other reservists, National Guard members, and their families are also rethinking their commitment to the military as their duties as "weekend warriors" have morphed into full-time jobs that have become increasingly risky.

As a result, military leaders worry about how they'll recruit and retain the next generation of part-time soldiers who are increasingly being called upon to fight the war on terror and man peacekeeping commitments from Iraq to Bosnia. More than 174,000 reservists and National Guardsman are currently on active duty and 34 of them have been killed while serving in Iraq.

"There's a potential for a catastrophic fall off," says Michael O'Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution. "How many people in these units want to deploy one in three years for the next half decade?"

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has ordered a sweeping rebalancing of the active-reserve military mix that may well shift heavily demanded units such as military police into the active force in the next few years. But the proportion of reservists serving in Iraq will only grow next year as two Guard brigades relieve active duty combat troops.

Here in Rhode Island, generals have good reason to worry about the impact of frequent overseas deployments. The nation's smallest state has proportionately deployed the largest number of Guard troops abroad since 9/11. More than 500 Rhode Island National Guard soldiers are currently stationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Kosovo, Qatar, Bahrain, and Iraq in the state's largest deployment since World War II.

For the first time since that war, the Rhode Island National Guard suffered combat casualties this month when a Humvee assigned to the 115th Military Police company hit a land mine north of Baghdad, killing two sergeants.

Even before that incident, it had been a difficult seven months since the men and women of the 115th MP company left jobs that ranged from construction to teaching, and reported for duty at their Cranston armory, a building that looks no larger than a high school gym.

Though the war had officially ended when they arrived in Iraq, the violence had not abated. Several of the unit's soldiers were wounded while conducting raids and patrolling the streets of Baghdad and Fallujah, where lawlessness has earned the city a reputation as Iraq's "Wild West."

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