Posted on 03/02/2004 6:53:05 AM PST by areafiftyone
About 1,000 soldiers in the New York National Guard will begin preparing to go to Iraq after the Pentagon put them on notice Monday that they may be mobilized.
The alert order was issued to the 42nd Infantry Division headquartered in Troy, N.Y. and three other major units around the country as part of a larger force, probably to total around 100,000 active duty and reserve troops expected to take over for the contingent just beginning a one-year tour.
The Pentagon's alert order applies to approximately 1,000 soldiers in units around New York State with the 42nd Infantry Division, known as the "Rainbow Division."
Those soldiers constitute roughly a third of all New York Army National Guard troops, out of 14,000 42nd infantry soldiers around the country.
"Units from Buffalo to Albany to New York City are involved in this alert order," said Scott Sandman, a spokesman for New York's division of military and naval affairs. "This signals to our troops that they might start squaring away some of those family issues and things of that nature."
The soldier-readiness process can usually be accomplished during drill weekends, he said.
"There have been ongoing discussions with the federal command that a decision might be imminent," said Sandman.
The division has no indication of when a decision on mobilization would be made, he said.
Soldiers deployed to Iraq are first sent to an Army post for a period of additional training and then shipped overseas.
Elements of the 42nd have already been deployed overseas since Sept. 11, but the entire Division has not been mobilized since World War II, when 42nd troops helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp.
I think this reporter has some facts badly garbled. The 1,000 soldiers from the 42d ID who have been alerted are not one third of the New York Army Guard. (I also doubt that the 42d division actually has 14,000 soldiers -- they might have 14,000 slots, but that's different than having the troops.)
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