A HALF-READY GUARD

Deployments to Iraq have left Maine’s Army National Guard with a little more than half its authorized equipment. Commanders say it can cope with any domestic emergency. But its readiness for further overseas deployment may be limited.

The Army Guard’s equipment on hand and available for mission is currently 53 percent of what is authorized, says Maj. Michael J. Backus, director of public affairs. The National Guard Bureau, which coordinates Guard matters nationally, rates Maine’s equipment on hand at only 45 percent, identifying some current equipment as “nondeployable.”

Despite equipment shortages in all units, almost all are deployable, since groups sent to Iraq now use equipment already there. Maine’s National Guard units are not in the 88 percent recently rated by a congressional commission as “not ready,” although one unit awaits repairs and replacement of bulldozers, trucks and other heavy equipment it took to Iraq in 2004.

Of the Maine Army National Guard’s current 2,052 soldiers, 194 are on active duty. The rest are doing their training of one weekend a month and two weeks a year. Ninety are now in Iraq and due back home in July. Thirty-five military police leave for Iraq in July. A 132-troop air ambulance unit, which now has 10 vacancies, is slated to go early next year.

As for a hurricane or tornado or another ice storm, Chief of Staff Col. Jerry Dunlap says: “We believe we are capable right now of responding to any state emergency.” But he added that other states might have to help under an agreement called the Emergency Management Assistance Compact.

The air ambulance unit will take most of the 12 helicopters now on hand, but he says enough will remain here for occasional medevac missions.

Maine’s Air National Guard, with a current force of 900 in Bangor and 200 in South Portland, is short about 80 but is moving gradually up to strength, says the commander, Col. Don McCormack.

He says that the Bangor unit is the busiest air-refueling wing in the country. For most trans-Atlantic traffic, Bangor is the last point for outgoing planes and the first they see when returning. The wing’s 10 tanker planes are being replaced by new and improved models.

Both the Army and Air National Guards in Maine report that recruiting is up. Col. Dunlap says the Army Guard has recruited 321 men and women since last October. Col. McCormack reports that it has accepted 62 recruits this year in a steady increase in the past three years. He attributes the increase to improved recruitment and better benefits in addition to patriotic desire to serve the country. He says there are “far more people [applying] than we have slots for.”

The officers agree that recruits are fully informed that they may be sent to Iraq and are willing and even eager to go there if needed.

Maine’s National Guard is thus in better shape than some others, but its problems reflect the Bush administration’s reliance on a primarily domestic force to relieve an overstressed Army and Marine Corps.