Wait a minute. You served in the national guard? You weren't regular military?
Wait a minute, yourself. Army National Guard are about one-third more likely to be killed in Iraq than full-time active-duty soldiers serving there, a 2004 USA TODAY analysis of Pentagon statistics showed.
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According to figures furnished by the military branches, the active Army had sent about 250,000 soldiers to Iraq, and 622 had been killed, by 2004. That works out to one death for every 402 soldiers who have deployed. About 37,000 Army Guard soldiers have been sent to Iraq since the war began and 140 have died there — one fatality for every 264 soldiers who have served, or about a 35% higher death rate.
There are several reasons for the greater death rates among so-called part-time soldiers, who generally drill one weekend a month and two weeks during the summer when there's no war. The Pentagon has called up thousands of part-time troops for tours of a year or more in Iraq. Some of the most dangerous missions, including driving convoys and guarding bases and other facilities, frequently are assigned to Guard and reserve troops. Iraqi insurgents have attacked convoys with roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades, and a Tennessee Guardsman publicly complained to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld then about the lack of armor on some vehicles.
In addition, National Guard troops ordinarily receive anywhere from 6 months to 2 years active duty US Army training. ( I had 2 years) + also spent 2 months in Iraq, THIS YEAR (August 11 - October 11 + 5 days in Afghanistan)
Got focused now ? I might also add that my uncle was a National Guard paratrooper in World War II. He was killed in the Marianas Pacific islands campaign in 1944.