By: E&P Staff Using e-mails, interviews, and official documents, the Los Angeles Times this morning profiled another National Guard unit, from Ft. Bliss in Texas, that went to Iraq woefully undertrained and equipped.
Members of the unit cited, among other things, going off to war with with chronic illness, broken guns, and trucks with blown transmissions.
Apparently the unit's machine guns were in such poor shape that one sergeant, in a report to his commanders, wrote: "Perhaps we should throw stones?"
The allegations, wrote reporter Scott Gold from Houston, come a month after another National Guard unit "alleged that its training at Fort Bliss was so poor that soldiers feared incurring needlessly high casualties when they arrive in Iraq early next year.
"Although the military has defended its troop preparedness, the willingness of units to go public with allegations suggests growing concern among National Guard and reserve members."
In a summary document obtained by the newspaper, the same sergeant reported that some soldiers had arrived in Iraq without ever having fired some of the weapons they would use in war. Military commanders had misread mobilization orders, costing the soldiers a month of training,
"We have been called away from our homes and families for hostile operations. We are owed a chance to be trained properly and given the tools to obtain that objective," the sergeant wrote.
Fort Bliss spokeswoman Jean Offutt said Wednesday, "We have had very few issues. This is quite a surprise."
The document was shown to the Times on condition that the name of the sergeant, who has extensive experience in both the National Guard and the active-duty armed forces, not be used.
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