Commission Report: Majority of National Guard Units Rated 'Not Ready'

A National Guardsman prepares a family for rescue from their rooftop during Hurricane Katrina

Nearly 90 percent of Army National Guard units in the United States are rated "not ready" -- largely because of shortfalls in equipment worth billions of dollars -- jeopardizing the Guard's ability to respond to crises at home and abroad, according to a congressional commission that released a preliminary report today on the state of U.S. military reserve forces.

The commission found that heavy deployments of the National Guard and Reserves since 2001 for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and other anti-terrorism missions have deepened shortages, forced the military to cobble together units and hurt recruiting. The problems threaten to undermine the nation's 830,000-strong selected reserves, the commission said.

Read the rest at the Washington Post

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