Report Finds Pennsylvania National Guard Soldiers Bear Disproportionate Share
of Burden of Wars
Veterans for America's Wounded Warrior Outreach Program Releases New Report:
WASHINGTON, April 7, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- VFA's Wounded Warrior
Outreach Program has chronicled the experiences of the units of the U.S. Army,
on a state-by-state basis, that have been among our nation's most heavily used
in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. VFA has aggregated information on each
frontline unit's number of deployments, intensity of combat, and dwell time.
Our Reports found that Army National Guard members who deploy to Iraq and
Afghanistan regularly see high-intensity combat. This is a dramatic change
for units designed primarily for domestic missions.
Almost half of the National Guard members who have been deployed to Iraq
and Afghanistan have returned from war with mental health problems. Members of
the National Guard who have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan are almost a
third more likely to develop post-combat mental health problems than
active-duty Soldiers and almost 60% more likely to have post-combat mental
health problems than active-duty Marines.
Since 2001, 17,000 Pennsylvania Guardsmen have deployed to Operation
Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Pennsylvania's National Guard
Brigade Combat Teams (BCT's) will begin deploying as brigades in February 2009
when the 56th Brigade Combat Team deploys to Iraq.
Veterans For America's Wounded Warrior Outreach Program has worked closely
with Soldiers and their families across the country and we are deeply
concerned with the toll that our deployment cycles have taken.
"When elected representatives talk about the 'readiness' of the military,
they must also talk about the health of our troops," said Bobby Muller,
President of VFA. "We cannot consider our military 'ready' when we need rely
so heavily on our Pennsylvania National Guard Soldiers to fulfill our missions
abroad. Our Soldiers are beginning to unravel."
Reports can be found at www.veteransforamerica.org
SOURCE Veterans for America
Adrienne Willis, Veterans for America, +1-202-557-7509,
awillis@veteransforamerica.org
