New Guard number shows lower Iraq death rate (revised downward)

The National Guard released a new figure Tuesday for the number of Army National Guard troops who have served in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.

Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, provided numbers Tuesday that showed about 86,000 Guard soldiers have served or are currently serving there and a total of 142 have been killed, or one in every 606 who have deployed to Iraq. That figure is lower than the death rate for active-duty Army soldiers. According to numbers provided by the Army, a total of 250,000 active-duty soldiers have been to Iraq or are still there, and 659 have been killed, or one in every 379.

On Monday, USA TODAY reported that Guard soldiers in Iraq were more likely to be killed than active-duty Army soldiers. The story was based on faulty numbers provided by the Guard last week.

The Guard initially blamed the wrong numbers on an internal error. Later, the Guard said it had misunderstood the question and provided a total only for troops who had gone to Iraq and come home, not for all those who had set foot in Iraq. Based on that misunderstanding, the Guard said, it gave USA TODAY a figure of 37,000 troops.

The death rates for Guard and Army Reserve troops are significant because the Pentagon is relying heavily on citizen soldiers to fight the war in Iraq. About 40% of U.S. forces there are part-time troops from the Guard and reserves, who typically train one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer - unless there's a war. In its effort to keep sufficient troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon has called up thousands of Guard and reserve troops for active-duty tours of a year or more.
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