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Guard to bring gear back from Iraq

The National Guard and reserve components will take their equipment with them when they redeploy from Iraq, Pentagon officials told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.

But while reserve units back home, who earlier were forced to leave gear in Iraq, will be able to fill their shortages with other excess equipment coming back for refurbishment at a U.S. depot, much of that materiel will initially go to units with shortfalls that are slated to deploy.

Lawmakers such as Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., expressed concern during the hearing about how war demands had created equipment shortfalls back home for Guard and reserve troops as well as state emergency responders tackling homeland catastrophes such as 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.

“The 890th Engineers had already done their hitch in Iraq in ’03,” Taylor said. “By the time they returned to Mississippi, they had left every piece of equipment behind. They did a magnificent job after Katrina with only 60 percent of the equipment they should have had. But the fact of the matter is, they only had 60 percent of the equipment they should have had.”

Now, Guard and reserve units will redeploy with the equipment they brought to Iraq, said Lt. Gen. Kathleen Gainey, the Joint Staff’s director for logistics. Guard gear makes up 4 percent of all 3.3 million pieces of U.S. equipment in Iraq, while the Army Reserve alone owns 16 percent, she said.

In addition, Gainey said, the services are each reviewing National Guard and reserve equipment requirements to find shortfalls “and identify if there is any equipment that is currently in Iraq that could be used to fill their shortages.” All are also examining lists of equipment being returned to the U.S. for refurbishment to fill reserve shortages caused by having previously left equipment in Iraq.

Those pieces, she said, “are identified for transfer back to the reserve components.”

“They may not get back the exact same truck or MRAP or tank that they left in theater, but they will get one of those out of depot,” Gainey said.

But deploying units, she later added, will have first priority.

Then, she said, “as more and more equipment comes out of the depot, shortages will be filled in units that are still back in the United States that don’t currently have a deployment mission immediately on the horizon.”

It’s not just the Guard in need of such gear, Taylor said. A 5-kilowatt commercial generator unwanted by the military and not being transferred to Iraq’s security forces — as those that are 220 volts are likely to be — would be a welcome addition at a coastal firehouse, he said.

Non-federal agencies will have the opportunity to get such equipment, said Alan Estevez, acting deputy under secretary of defense for logistics and materiel readiness.

This equipment, which includes items such as commercial generators, will be placed into the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service system where, Estevez said, state surplus offices will have 14 days to make a claim and another 14 days to arrange for its transfer from Iraq.

Some U.S. gear will be staying in Iraq past the Dec. 31, 2011, withdrawal deadline, although the “vast majority” will remain with U.S. forces and either come home or be transferred to units in Afghanistan, said Michele Flournoy, under secretary of defense for policy.

Gainey said the needs of U.S. units will be met first.

There won’t be any charge for some of the gear being transferred to Iraq, Flournoy said, noting the U.S. desire to fully train and equip Iraqi security forces. Iraq is paying for the refurbishment of certain equipment, and purchasing U.S. major weapons systems through the foreign military sales program, she said.

In addition to 3.3 million pieces of equipment in Iraq, military logisticians are also determining what to do with 49,000 sea-land containers, 34,000 tons of ammunition and 21,000 tons of supplies, Estevez said.

The U.S. also still needs to give the Iraqi government control of 289 of the 495 U.S. forward operating bases that were established during the war, along with 22 supply support activities, he said.