Report Finds Pennsylvania National Guard Soldiers Bear Disproportionate Share of Burden of Wars

Veterans for America's Wounded Warrior Outreach Program Releases New Report: Weekend Warriors to Frontline Soldiers: A State-by-State Account of the Toll of Deployments on National Guard Brigade Comb

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

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Veterans for America

CONTACT: Adrienne Willis, Veterans for America, +1-202-557-7509,
awillis@veteransforamerica.org

Web site: http://www.veteransforamerica.org/

2008-04-07 22:37:47 0330146 PRNEWSWIRE