Army Guard short of equipment at homeKIMBERLY HEFLING
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Army National Guard units are short of equipment on the home front partly because they are told to leave vital equipment such as armored Humvees in Iraq for replacement troops, according to a report released Thursday.
As of June, Army National Guard units had left overseas more than 64,000 pieces of equipment worth more than $1.2 billion, and more than half cannot be accounted for by the Army, according to the report by the Government Accountability Office.
On average, National Guard units at home have only 34 percent of their essential war-fighting equipment, said the report released at a hearing of the House Committee on Government Reform.
"National Guard officials believe that the National Guard's response to Hurricane Katrina was more complicated because significant quantities of critical equipment such as satellite communications equipment, radios, trucks, helicopters, and night vision goggles were deployed to Iraq," the report said.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, whose state has 3,200 troops in Iraq - the highest per capita in the nation - said in prepared testimony that Pennsylvania troops have had to leave behind a variety of equipment, ranging from seven helicopters in Afghanistan to 59 tractors and 118 trailers in Iraq.
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http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/10/20/iraq.main/ 
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