Death toll of reservists and Guard serving in Iraq declines

WASHINGTON -- The death toll among National Guard and Reserve troops in Iraq has plunged this year as citizen soldiers play a smaller combat role against an insurgency that increasingly targets Iraqis.

Thus far in August, five members of the Guard and Reserve have died in Iraq, compared with 44 at this point in August 2005, the deadliest month of the war for the Guard and Reserve.

The number of Guard and Reserve deaths for the year totals 54 -- less than one-third the 189 recorded at this point last year. In the comparable period in 2004, the death toll was 92, according to Defense Department casualty records.

The death count for all U.S. forces in Iraq -- both active and reserve -- has slid from an average of a little over two per day last year to a little under two per day so far this year. The insurgents continue to target U.S. troops, but the worst violence this year has been aimed at Iraqis in what some say amounts to civil war.

The main reason for the decline in reservist deaths is that fewer are being sent to Iraq. They comprise a little under 20 percent of the 138,000 U.S. troops now there, compared with about 40 percent last year.

Also, the number of National Guard combat brigades in Iraq has dropped from five to one. What's more, U.S. commanders about a year ago adjusted the mission of the Guard combat forces in Iraq from focusing mainly on fighting the insurgency to providing "theater security" -- securing major highways and bases.

Today that is the main role of the only Guard combat brigade in Iraq, the Minnesota Army National Guard's 34th Infantry, whose soldiers also are working in south-central Iraqi to help develop water resources.

Although troop rotation plans are a bit unsettled due to the continuing high level of sectarian violence in Baghdad, the Army may stop using brigade-sized Guard units in Iraq next year.

Col. David Elicerio, 48, commander of the Minnesota Guard brigade in Iraq, said he was told when his unit left the United States several months ago that his would be the last Guard brigade to be mobilized for Iraq duty "for the foreseeable future." That plan could change, he noted, as the security situation changes.

Dan Goure, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, a private research group, said that although the Guard and Reserve are shouldering less of the combat burden now, they are likely to maintain a large support force in Iraq for as long as the U.S. has a combat mission there. Support forces often take casualties because they travel roadways and encounter the threat of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

Goure said support forces perform a variety of functions like road security, intelligence and military police.

"You wouldn't see that force, for example, in the battle for Fallujah," he said, referring to the city west of Baghdad that saw one of the fiercest and most deadly battles of the entire war in November 2004. "But you would see it doing just about everything else that has caused all the casualties to date in Iraq."

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told troops during a visit to Iraq earlier this month that Guardsmen carried a bigger share of the combat load last year so that active-duty units -- like the 101st Airborne Division and 4th Infantry Division currently serving in Iraq -- had time at their home bases to undergo a top-to-bottom reorganization increasing the size of each division from three to four brigades.

Now that most active-duty divisions have completed those reorganizations, there is less need for Guard combat forces in Iraq, Pace said, although some Guard units will continue to pull Iraq duty.

The Marines, on the other hand, have found themselves with a shortfall of reservists willing to volunteer for Iraq duty. This week they announced plans to involuntarily recall up to 2,500 members of the Individual Ready Reserve in coming months. Those are Marines who completed an enlistment term on active duty and returned to civilian life with a number of years remaining on their eight-year service obligation.

The Marine Corps Reserves have seen a sharp decline in their death toll in Iraq. Their worst month was August 2005, when 22 were killed -- all in Anbar province, a hotbed of insurgent activity west of Baghdad. Since the start of 2006 they have had only five deaths -- one in June, one in July and three so far this month.

More broadly, members of the National Guard and Reserve are being called to active duty less often for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. This week there are 111,964 on active duty, which is 83 fewer than last week, according to Defense Department figures. At this time last year, the number was 145,097 and two years ago it was 161,646.