The me me.

Parenthetically, having nothing at all to do with this story other than my never ending campaign to impart military trivia upon unwitting readers, the 256th Infantry Brigade is somewhat infamous within the Army for the large scale mutiny it carried out while training to deploy to the Gulf War over having to work weekends.

The issue here are twofold: were the troops in Iraq indispensable or even necessary to respond to Katrina and was the equipment those troops took with them indispensable or necessary to respond to Katrina.

The troops.

As of August 31 there were 3,748 Louisiana Army National Guardsmen and Army Reservists and 193 Air Guardsmen and Reservists on active duty throughout the world. The lion’s share of them, about 3,500, are with the 256th Infantry Brigade in Iraq. This leaves some 8,000 Guardsmen and an unknown number of Army Reservists available for disaster relief. The skill sets in those units, with the exception of the single combat engineer battalion, have no particular utility in disaster relief. So the argument that the absence of the 450 men of the 1088th Engineer Battalion were somehow critical to response to this disaster, or that the 3,500 troops missing could not be more than adequately replaced by other troops from neighboring states is just not true.

The equipment.

So did the equipment the 256th Infantry Brigade take with it to Iraq, equipment provide some unique immediate response capability that could have mitigated the damage from Katrina?

Arguably someone could make the case that the M1 Abrams tanks, M2 Bradley, and M109 Paladin howitzers belonging to the infantry, armor, and artillery battalions could have been filled with QUIKRETE® and pushed into the break in the levee. Absent this scenario, it seems ridiculous on its face to object to the deployment of this equipment to Iraq.

The brigade’s engineer battalion, the 1088th Engineer Battalion, is in Iraq with its parent unit. It is a combat engineer battalion. Combat engineer battalions don’t have a lot of heavy equipment. Each of the three lettered companies would have six M-9 Armored Combat Earthmovers (ACE). The ACE is much more useful for combat than disaster relief. The idea that 18 armored bulldozers would have been of critical assistance, unless they were dumped in the levee break on top of the tanks and personnel carriers in nothing short of ludicrous

On the other hand, the unit left behind, the 225th Engineer Group, (Combat), and its four organic Engineer Battalions (Combat)(Heavy), is well suited for disaster relief. Army Field Manual 5-116 lays out their missions and capabilities:

HQ, ENGINEER GROUP (COMBAT)

This group HQ is normally assigned to a corps when the composition of the subordinate battalions is predominately combat-oriented and attached to an engineer brigade. At EAC, this group HQ may have a greater construction orientation; yet it brings valuable combat expertise to the EAC's reinforcing role in areas with forward-placed EWLs or special project zones. It—

--Commands assigned and attached units and coordinates engineer activities.

--Plans, supervises, and coordinates activities of assigned and attached engineer units engaged in M/CM/S and general-engineering functions.

--Supervises engineer units preparing and maintaining combat routes and MSRs in the TO (to include the ingress and egress, battle positions, and river-crossing sites) and repairing bridges, fords, and culverts.

--Plans and supervises engineer reconnaissance.

--Conducts planning for and supervises assigned and attached engineer units performing general-engineering tasks, such as constructing and repairing landing strips, heliports, port facilities, and railroads.

--Does not have a design management section.

ENGINEER BATTALION (COMBAT) (HEAVY)

The battalion is normally assigned to an engineer group, a brigade, a corps, or a joint or combined task force (TF). It—

--Increases the combat effectiveness of the division, corps, and theater Army's forces by accomplishing general-engineering and M/CM/S tasks.

--Constructs, repairs, and maintains the MSRs, landing strips, buildings, structures, and utilities.

--Performs rear-area security operations, when required.

At EAC, this unit may work forward of the traditional corps rear boundaries, as well as the operational engineer missions with EWLs throughout the theater. The battalion—

--Constructs, rehabilitates, repairs, maintains, and modifies landing strips, airfields, CPs,

--MSRs, supply installations, buildings, structures, and bridges.

--Repairs and reconstructs (on a limited basis) railroads and sewage and water facilities.

--Provides field-engineering assistance and support to divisional engineers preparing protective positions.

--Conducts engineer reconnaissance.

--Creates obstacles to degrade enemy mobility in rear areas.

--Clears obstacles as part of an area-clearance operation, not as part of an assault-breaching operation.

--Performs rear-area operations, to include infantry combat missions, within the limitations of organic weapons and equipment.

--Supervises contractual construction, skilled construction labor, and unskilled indigenous personnel.

--Conducts area-damage clearance/restoration operations.

--Provides religious support to assigned and attached units.

Viewed from any position the idea that a very small number of troops could in anyway have had an impact on the aftermath of Katrina is laughable. It is doubly laughable because it ignores the 10,000+ out of state National Guardsmen who began arriving in Louisiana on Wednesday and the thousands of out-of-state police officers who have also been loaned to Louisiana, a team from Loudoun County, Virginia is departing as I write this.

This whole story line is nothing more or less than a dishonest attack perpetrated by the left in their concerted effort to make political points on the backs of the dead and homeless. Attacks that have moved me squarely in line with Thomas’ position on this subject.

So while we can expect the left and their fellow travelers in the press to throw this bit of piffle about we should not under any circumstances take it seriously of allow it to go unanswered.