"virtually all the approximately 300 soldiers of 155th Brigade's B and C companies had their homes destroyed or severely damaged in the hurricane. "

September 11th, 2005 3:25 pm
Mississippi troops

are refused leave to

help families


By Ellen Knickmeyer / The Washington Post

Scores of Mississippi National Guard troops in Iraq who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina have been refused even 15-day leaves to aid their displaced families, told by commanders that there were too few U.S. troops in Iraq to spare them, according to members of the Mississippi Guard.

About 600 members of the Mississippi Guard's 155th Brigade Combat Team, posted south of Baghdad in the area known as the "Triangle of Death" for the frequency of insurgent attacks, live in the parts of southern Mississippi and southeast Louisiana hit hardest by Katrina, Maj. Neil F. Murphy Jr., a spokesman with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, said by e-mail Saturday. The brigade is attached to the Expeditionary Force.

Guard members and relatives said in e-mail or telephone interviews that virtually all the approximately 300 soldiers of 155th Brigade's B and C companies had their homes destroyed or severely damaged in the hurricane.

Eighty Mississippi Guard members have been granted emergency leave, Murphy said.

The rest have been refused leave, told by their brigade command that all other forward operating bases "are tapped out and cannot send troops," one Mississippi Guard member wrote in an e-mail that was shared by a family member, with his permission, on condition of anonymity.

"All I know is that we are combat-ineffective due to the problems at home," wrote the Guard member, whose wife and young child escaped before their apartment building was washed away.

Another member of the 155th wrote, "We are not trying to weasel our way home, we just need to help our loved ones."

In an e-mail, Lt. Col. William Glasgow, the brigade combat team's executive officer, said that "soldiers who have been most affected by Hurricane Katrina will be allowed to return home on a 15-day emergency leave."

The 80 soldiers granted leave will leave their bases "over the next 2-3 days," Glasgow wrote.

About 78,000 National Guard troops are overseas, most of them in Iraq. Forty percent of the Mississippi National Guard's forces are in Iraq, including the 3,500 in the brigade combat team.

In Baghdad, the 2,500 Louisiana National Guard members in Iraq this week began moving to Kuwait, on their way home after finishing their tours of duty. But the units from Mississippi, which include support and engineering units that normally would be used in disasters such as Katrina, have not completed their tours.

Murphy, the Marine spokesman, wrote, "We believe that the balance has been established to effectively manage both situations" in Iraq and at home. "We've been told that those that need to go home have been granted leave or are in the process of doing so." He wrote late Saturday that he is still investigating whether commanders had told Guard members that there were too few troops in Iraq to let them return.