COLGAN: There is a buzz at the tiny Alexandria Airport in Central Louisiana its not often the army brass graces this tarmac. Among them a four star general, the Vice Chief of Staff of the US Army. But this is a special occasion, the soldiers of the Louisiana National Guard have finished their tour of duty in Iraq and are trickling home home to a state devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
The 256th Infantry Brigade, thirty five of its soldiers killed in Iraq, leaving one scene of devastation for another.
SOLDIER: Were back, were going to make our city right in the State of Louisiana, thats right.
MC AT GATHERING: Ladies and Gentlemen, today we gather to recognise and honour members of the 256 Brigade Combat Team. Please join us in a round of applause for these fine soldiers.
COLGAN: These soldiers belong to a unique American institution the National Guard. Civilians who don military uniform to defend the homeland from flood, fire, disaster and civil disruption but now theyre expected to spend lengthy tours fighting on foreign soil too. Theyre police officers, teachers, nurses, accountants, electricians part time soldiers asked to put their lives on hold to defend the nation full time. Now, hundreds in this brigade have lost everything.
STAFF SGT HARRISON KAYWOOD: Yeah we all been affected by the hurricane some but were just going to go home, pick up the pieces the best way we can and move on as a family.
SGT STEVEN SUNSERI: Its traumatic but the family is okay so its just good to be back.
COLGAN: It must have been agony for some of those guys.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: It was very agonising, it was very tough. It was long nights, it was, you know, it was a hard closure to a hard tour of duty.
COLGAN: First Sgt Darrell Graf considers himself one of the lucky ones. He moved from Louisiana to Mississippi a couple of years ago. Home and family were out of the hurricanes path, but not so his men.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: You have this anticipation for the day that youre going home. You have this build up of emotion that began to really transform the unit at the very end and as theyre getting ready to be proud of what theyve done, to be happy that theyre going home, to be thankful for what they have, to summarise the lessons that theyve learned, you have a hurricane destroy their community, their city, their homes and their families and its like an instant eraser board just wiped everything away. Everything that theyve anticipated has gone. Every bit of joy they felt is gone and now its just a sombre kind of quiet.
COLGAN: These civilians signed up with the Guard for one weekend a month or one month a year. Until four years ago they werent even considered real soldiers by their professional comrades lacking in training and given hand-me-down equipment from the army.
Before September the 11th, it was argued the Guard should be taken out of foreign service and kept purely for homeland defence but the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have stretched the US Army to the limit. Expanding the army would be costly and politically unpopular for the Bush Administration. Its opted instead for a callout of the National Guard.
GENERAL RICHARD CODY, Vice Chief of Staff, US Army: Weve always said were one army. I think since 9.11 we have proven it. We have seven National Guard Brigades and thousands of United States Army reservists serving shoulder to shoulder with the active component. When you bring the reserve component of this nation to war, you bring America to war.
COLGAN: Darrell Graf got out of the army twelve years ago but then enlisted with the National Guard partly to pay for a college education. As his civilian career in engineering and marketing took off, he decided hed served long enough.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: I made a decision to leave. However, as duty bound to my men, I didnt want to leave them just out in the cold so I re-enlisted for six months, which was not always possible but just for six months to train my replacement.
COLGAN: Desperate to keep its veterans, the National Guard invoked whats called a stop loss order in short, blocking any resignations. Darrell Graf had just one month left to serve when his unit was sent to Iraq.
Did you have any idea that when you were about to re-enlist that you would find yourself in Iraq?
SGT DARRELL GRAF: No, no.
DANA GRAF: He didnt even believe it was true even after he got the phone call. He really believed he could get out. He thought there was a way that he could manage to get out.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: It really wasnt a ramp-up, it was like a dragster with its wheels spinning and it just took off.
DANA GRAF: Two weeks later he was gone. I mean that was it, we had no grasp of the concept at all. I mean it was okay hes leaving and thats that.
COLGAN: He left his wife in Mississippi for nearly two years with two children, the youngest still a baby.
DANA GRAF: The oldest one was probably the most, she had the most difficult time. You never would assume that a four or five year old would struggle with the same emotions that an adult would have but this child did, she did and I know that theres tonnes more children that did. Its very, very difficult to see your babies struggle. It was very hard. I wrote the President, I talked to the Pentagon, I mean I went through every single channel I could to let them know that you know what, we have something to say here and we are people that are being left behind, you know I mean thats a long time to go without your husband.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: The hardest part for me was the guilt, it was my fault. It was my fault that I re-enlisted, it was my fault that I was deployed, it was my fault that my family was going through the separation, the pains, the many things that she doesnt talk about.
COLGAN: So this is Laurens room?
DANA GRAF: Yes this is Laurens room. Every night before bed I would tuck her in, have her kiss her dad good night and then lay her down.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: To miss so much is the only thing that you find is that one little negative bitter pocket that you say you cant get back because yes, my daughters first words to me were over the phone and she wasnt talking to me, she simply said "mommas shoes" and you will never forget that statement. Its what it is, it was hard and it still brings back hard emotions because you cant replace that time.
COLGAN: There are emotional and economic strains. When on active duty, Guardsmen are paid but theres no compensation for businesses and careers abandoned for more than a year. Darrell Graf says he can rebuild his depleted client base, others are not so lucky.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: Theres many a family that didnt make it, many families that divorced. Therell be a certain percentage of soldiers that have no home, have no job, their business is gone, their employer is gone, they have nothing left to go to.
CONGRESSMAN WALTER JONES: The Guard is supposed to be a back up. I regret that this Administration did not do a better job of analysing the long-term needs in Iraq so that we could know how many active duty forces we needed instead of going to the Guard and Reserve.
COLGAN: Republican Congressman Walter Jones sits on the House Armed Services Committee, is a former National Guardsman himself and has Army and Air National Guard Units in his state of North Carolina. In a split with his Republican President, the Congressman says the US cannot sustain its use of the troops, especially the Guard who now account for nearly half of all US forces in Iraq.
CONGRESSMAN WALTER JONES: I dont think we can afford to be there two or three more years with 130,000 American troops. If you do, Im afraid somebodys going to have to start the debate in the Congress about the draft.
COLGAN: Could you have ever imagined that your people would have made up fifty percent, half the component, in a war zone?
LT GENERAL STEVEN BLUM: No one in the world ever imagined that.
COLGAN: National Guard Chief, Lt General Steven Blum spoke to Foreign Correspondent before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Already there were fears the demands of Iraq were pushing the Guard beyond their limits.
LT GENERAL STEVEN BLUM: We are being stretched, theres no question about that. Probably abusing the National Guard in particular in an unprecedented rate in modern history but were far from broken, theres lots of elasticity. We have a lot of stretch left.
COLGAN: He warned then they were coping but there was a serious shortage of funds and basic equipment such as trucks and radios to serve on the home front.
LT GENERAL STEVEN BLUM: This is in the billions of dollars just for the equipment piece. You have to remember that the National Guard was under-equipped before the war started that has not improved the equipment condition or the quantity or the quality of the equipment thats still remaining here in the United States so that the Guard can discharge its responsibilities and duties if the Governor should call on them for homeland defence and support the homeland security.
WOMAN, Hurricane Katrina victim: We need help, we need somebody to come into this city and help us. We need the National Guard. Mr Bush please send somebody here to help us.
COLGAN: When the hurricane struck, it was the National Guard to whom everyone turned. But in the two states hardest hit, half the National Guard of Louisiana was sitting in Iraq, as was forty percent of the Guard from neighbouring Mississippi. More than 40,000 other troops were pulled in, the biggest disaster response in Guard history but only a third of the Guards equipment was available for use in the US. Most of it, including the best of their communications equipment, is in Iraq. One senior officer told us another disaster now would take the Guard to breaking point.
CONGRESSMAN WALTER JONES: Weve got so many problems in this country, especially since Katrina. Ive got another hurricane coming at the time of this interview. This is one of those seasons Im afraid its going to be hurricane after hurricane and you know this season goes until the end of November and the states need the Guard to help.
LT ANTOINE BROOKS: I never thought Id see this day. The day when were actually driving through a US city with weapons, providing security missions. I just never thought Id ever see this day.
COLGAN: Lt Antoine Brooks is a platoon leader with this National Guard military police unit brought in from California. In civilian life hes trying to run a medical database business, an enterprise hed put on hold until his return from a year in Iraq. Now hes back in uniform more than 3,000 kilometres from home.
LT ANTOINE BROOKS: Our mission is to provide security for the search and rescue teams, generally to protect them from any hostile encounters that they may have ie. people that think theyve mistaken for looters or any other problems that they may have had, as well as animals that may decide that theyre hungry and theyre going to attempt to make a meal out of one of us.
[Knocking on door of house in area devastated by Hurricane Katrina]
Open door. US Army, anybody here? Were here to help.
COLGAN: Officially under the command of the State Governors, the National Guard is the only branch of the military legally allowed to carry out law enforcement on US soil. When local police forces disintegrated under the strain of the disaster only the Guard had the authority to back them up and impose order.
California didnt have an intact MP unit to send. This one was cobbled together with MPs pulled in from around the state.
[Standoff with National Guardsman and policeman at checkpoint]
GUARDSMAN: Your ID sir.
POLICEMAN: What did I do?
GUARDSMAN: Well cos theres some folks whove stolen some New Orleans Police Department uniforms and a squad car. Were checking everybody, my orders.
POLICEMAN: Well I aint got time.
GUARDSMAN: Sorry?
POLICEMAN: Im going home okay.
GUARDSMAN: You need to stop sir. You need to stop your vehicle sir.
COLGAN: Southerners are asking why they had to wait for reinforcements from the other side of the country before order was restored. In Richland, Mississippi the parents of two Guardsmen say their sons should have been here to help.
PRISCILLA AMMERMAN: I mean why arent my sons here to be able to go down and help these fellow Mississippians, you know, why are they in Iraq? You know they should be here in Mississippi because this is what our National Guard Unit should be doing.
COLGAN: Josh and Paul Ammerman were born together and now serve together in the same National Guard unit in Iraq. Their mother says the twins wanted to be home helping after the hurricane with the local knowledge and urgency that only Mississippians could give.
PRISCILLA AMMERMAN: Most of them would have been to Biloxi and would have been to Gulfport and would have known the streets and would have known Gulfport people. Would have had family there that they would have very much cared about and you know they would have been able to do probably a better job you know than a Guard unit from another state would have been able to do.
COLGAN: The Ammermans have four sons. Like many parents they encourage their youngest, the twins, to join the National Guard. It would help pay for their college tuition and provide structure in their lives.
PRISCILLA AMMERMAN: We are children of the Vietnam era. In Vietnam, people joined the National Guard so that they wouldnt be deployed to a foreign soil so no, we didnt consider it. But we thought of a National Guard as a National Guard, you know as someone who protects inside the nation, as a militia, citizen soldiers and we didnt think of that, that they would be deployed overseas.
COLGAN: Filmed here at their base, the Ammerman twins are not only in Iraq but have one of the most dangerous of jobs personal bodyguard for their commander in an area near Baghdad known as the Triangle of Death. Their path often littered with IEDs, improvised explosive devices.
PAUL: Two trucks got hit today by the, I dont know if I can say that, but.
JOSH: You know we go on these missions you know and were convoying. I mean were lucky, knock on wood, we havent been hit by an IED yet theres no telling how many times weve been stopped on the supply routes and stuff by IEDs.
COLGAN: Priscilla Ammerman has requested her sons not be sent on missions together.
PAUL: You cant have brothers running the same missions. Its not possible. For one, I mean if you come into contact, theres the possibility that youll both of them but two, if youve got brothers running in the same convoy and one of them gets hurt, the other ones not going to be able to perform.
COLGAN: Its a well founded fear. Unlike the regular army, National Guard units comprise soldiers from the one state. When a helicopter is shot down or a truck blown up, the tragedy can shatter a whole community.
PRISCILLA AMMERMAN: Its just way more than anybody signed up for for the National Guard for as little benefits and as little pay as a National Guard soldier gets, its just being activated for this amount of time is just not what they signed up for.
COLGAN: Its a price too high for many. As soon as they can, the Ammerman brothers will join the steady stream of Guardsmen and women leaving the service. The Bush Administration is now attempting to stem the flow from the 430,000 strong Guard by offering its part-time soldiers cash incentives. Enlistment bonuses of up to $10,000 for new recruits, up to $15,000 for a soldier who re-enlists but still the numbers are falling and recruitment grows more difficult.
DANA GRAF: While he was over in Iraq, I think it was in January, they wanted them to re-enlist. They gave them signing bonuses and different things to I guess more or less tell them you know hey, you can sign on, stay with the military, we need you and they were dangling, I felt, they were dangling that over the soldiers head right at a time that wasnt really appropriate. That scared me to death, knowing that people were taking money over their husband, you know or their sons. I told my husband, I said I will work three jobs if I have to, I dont need that. We dont need that.
PRISCILLA AMMERMAN: I talked to neighbours who I would never expect of having any criticism of Bushs policies, saying that you know they just need to bring these soldiers home, its time for them to come home.
CONGRESSMAN WALTER JONES: If the President sees fit and starts downsizing today, it would be great with me.
COLGAN: Hes just spent nearly two years away from home but after four short days of leave, Sgt Darrell Graf is back in uniform reporting for duty. His fellow Guardsmen, like him, have a choice to make to stay in or leave.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: For me, was it a high price? I cant say that it was completely. For my family you bet, you bet. Ive got two little girls that, you know they didnt ask for it.
COLGAN: Hes getting out.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: Of all my deployment, when I wasnt able to put my family first, this is the time for me to switch gears and put my family first.
The 256th Infantry Brigade, thirty five of its soldiers killed in Iraq, leaving one scene of devastation for another.
SOLDIER: Were back, were going to make our city right in the State of Louisiana, thats right.
MC AT GATHERING: Ladies and Gentlemen, today we gather to recognise and honour members of the 256 Brigade Combat Team. Please join us in a round of applause for these fine soldiers.
COLGAN: These soldiers belong to a unique American institution the National Guard. Civilians who don military uniform to defend the homeland from flood, fire, disaster and civil disruption but now theyre expected to spend lengthy tours fighting on foreign soil too. Theyre police officers, teachers, nurses, accountants, electricians part time soldiers asked to put their lives on hold to defend the nation full time. Now, hundreds in this brigade have lost everything.
STAFF SGT HARRISON KAYWOOD: Yeah we all been affected by the hurricane some but were just going to go home, pick up the pieces the best way we can and move on as a family.
SGT STEVEN SUNSERI: Its traumatic but the family is okay so its just good to be back.
COLGAN: It must have been agony for some of those guys.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: It was very agonising, it was very tough. It was long nights, it was, you know, it was a hard closure to a hard tour of duty.
COLGAN: First Sgt Darrell Graf considers himself one of the lucky ones. He moved from Louisiana to Mississippi a couple of years ago. Home and family were out of the hurricanes path, but not so his men.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: You have this anticipation for the day that youre going home. You have this build up of emotion that began to really transform the unit at the very end and as theyre getting ready to be proud of what theyve done, to be happy that theyre going home, to be thankful for what they have, to summarise the lessons that theyve learned, you have a hurricane destroy their community, their city, their homes and their families and its like an instant eraser board just wiped everything away. Everything that theyve anticipated has gone. Every bit of joy they felt is gone and now its just a sombre kind of quiet.
COLGAN: These civilians signed up with the Guard for one weekend a month or one month a year. Until four years ago they werent even considered real soldiers by their professional comrades lacking in training and given hand-me-down equipment from the army.
Before September the 11th, it was argued the Guard should be taken out of foreign service and kept purely for homeland defence but the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have stretched the US Army to the limit. Expanding the army would be costly and politically unpopular for the Bush Administration. Its opted instead for a callout of the National Guard.
GENERAL RICHARD CODY, Vice Chief of Staff, US Army: Weve always said were one army. I think since 9.11 we have proven it. We have seven National Guard Brigades and thousands of United States Army reservists serving shoulder to shoulder with the active component. When you bring the reserve component of this nation to war, you bring America to war.
COLGAN: Darrell Graf got out of the army twelve years ago but then enlisted with the National Guard partly to pay for a college education. As his civilian career in engineering and marketing took off, he decided hed served long enough.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: I made a decision to leave. However, as duty bound to my men, I didnt want to leave them just out in the cold so I re-enlisted for six months, which was not always possible but just for six months to train my replacement.
COLGAN: Desperate to keep its veterans, the National Guard invoked whats called a stop loss order in short, blocking any resignations. Darrell Graf had just one month left to serve when his unit was sent to Iraq.
Did you have any idea that when you were about to re-enlist that you would find yourself in Iraq?
SGT DARRELL GRAF: No, no.
DANA GRAF: He didnt even believe it was true even after he got the phone call. He really believed he could get out. He thought there was a way that he could manage to get out.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: It really wasnt a ramp-up, it was like a dragster with its wheels spinning and it just took off.
DANA GRAF: Two weeks later he was gone. I mean that was it, we had no grasp of the concept at all. I mean it was okay hes leaving and thats that.
COLGAN: He left his wife in Mississippi for nearly two years with two children, the youngest still a baby.
DANA GRAF: The oldest one was probably the most, she had the most difficult time. You never would assume that a four or five year old would struggle with the same emotions that an adult would have but this child did, she did and I know that theres tonnes more children that did. Its very, very difficult to see your babies struggle. It was very hard. I wrote the President, I talked to the Pentagon, I mean I went through every single channel I could to let them know that you know what, we have something to say here and we are people that are being left behind, you know I mean thats a long time to go without your husband.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: The hardest part for me was the guilt, it was my fault. It was my fault that I re-enlisted, it was my fault that I was deployed, it was my fault that my family was going through the separation, the pains, the many things that she doesnt talk about.
COLGAN: So this is Laurens room?
DANA GRAF: Yes this is Laurens room. Every night before bed I would tuck her in, have her kiss her dad good night and then lay her down.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: To miss so much is the only thing that you find is that one little negative bitter pocket that you say you cant get back because yes, my daughters first words to me were over the phone and she wasnt talking to me, she simply said "mommas shoes" and you will never forget that statement. Its what it is, it was hard and it still brings back hard emotions because you cant replace that time.
COLGAN: There are emotional and economic strains. When on active duty, Guardsmen are paid but theres no compensation for businesses and careers abandoned for more than a year. Darrell Graf says he can rebuild his depleted client base, others are not so lucky.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: Theres many a family that didnt make it, many families that divorced. Therell be a certain percentage of soldiers that have no home, have no job, their business is gone, their employer is gone, they have nothing left to go to.
CONGRESSMAN WALTER JONES: The Guard is supposed to be a back up. I regret that this Administration did not do a better job of analysing the long-term needs in Iraq so that we could know how many active duty forces we needed instead of going to the Guard and Reserve.
COLGAN: Republican Congressman Walter Jones sits on the House Armed Services Committee, is a former National Guardsman himself and has Army and Air National Guard Units in his state of North Carolina. In a split with his Republican President, the Congressman says the US cannot sustain its use of the troops, especially the Guard who now account for nearly half of all US forces in Iraq.
CONGRESSMAN WALTER JONES: I dont think we can afford to be there two or three more years with 130,000 American troops. If you do, Im afraid somebodys going to have to start the debate in the Congress about the draft.
COLGAN: Could you have ever imagined that your people would have made up fifty percent, half the component, in a war zone?
LT GENERAL STEVEN BLUM: No one in the world ever imagined that.
COLGAN: National Guard Chief, Lt General Steven Blum spoke to Foreign Correspondent before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Already there were fears the demands of Iraq were pushing the Guard beyond their limits.
LT GENERAL STEVEN BLUM: We are being stretched, theres no question about that. Probably abusing the National Guard in particular in an unprecedented rate in modern history but were far from broken, theres lots of elasticity. We have a lot of stretch left.
COLGAN: He warned then they were coping but there was a serious shortage of funds and basic equipment such as trucks and radios to serve on the home front.
LT GENERAL STEVEN BLUM: This is in the billions of dollars just for the equipment piece. You have to remember that the National Guard was under-equipped before the war started that has not improved the equipment condition or the quantity or the quality of the equipment thats still remaining here in the United States so that the Guard can discharge its responsibilities and duties if the Governor should call on them for homeland defence and support the homeland security.
WOMAN, Hurricane Katrina victim: We need help, we need somebody to come into this city and help us. We need the National Guard. Mr Bush please send somebody here to help us.
COLGAN: When the hurricane struck, it was the National Guard to whom everyone turned. But in the two states hardest hit, half the National Guard of Louisiana was sitting in Iraq, as was forty percent of the Guard from neighbouring Mississippi. More than 40,000 other troops were pulled in, the biggest disaster response in Guard history but only a third of the Guards equipment was available for use in the US. Most of it, including the best of their communications equipment, is in Iraq. One senior officer told us another disaster now would take the Guard to breaking point.
CONGRESSMAN WALTER JONES: Weve got so many problems in this country, especially since Katrina. Ive got another hurricane coming at the time of this interview. This is one of those seasons Im afraid its going to be hurricane after hurricane and you know this season goes until the end of November and the states need the Guard to help.
LT ANTOINE BROOKS: I never thought Id see this day. The day when were actually driving through a US city with weapons, providing security missions. I just never thought Id ever see this day.
COLGAN: Lt Antoine Brooks is a platoon leader with this National Guard military police unit brought in from California. In civilian life hes trying to run a medical database business, an enterprise hed put on hold until his return from a year in Iraq. Now hes back in uniform more than 3,000 kilometres from home.
LT ANTOINE BROOKS: Our mission is to provide security for the search and rescue teams, generally to protect them from any hostile encounters that they may have ie. people that think theyve mistaken for looters or any other problems that they may have had, as well as animals that may decide that theyre hungry and theyre going to attempt to make a meal out of one of us.
[Knocking on door of house in area devastated by Hurricane Katrina]
Open door. US Army, anybody here? Were here to help.
COLGAN: Officially under the command of the State Governors, the National Guard is the only branch of the military legally allowed to carry out law enforcement on US soil. When local police forces disintegrated under the strain of the disaster only the Guard had the authority to back them up and impose order.
California didnt have an intact MP unit to send. This one was cobbled together with MPs pulled in from around the state.
[Standoff with National Guardsman and policeman at checkpoint]
GUARDSMAN: Your ID sir.
POLICEMAN: What did I do?
GUARDSMAN: Well cos theres some folks whove stolen some New Orleans Police Department uniforms and a squad car. Were checking everybody, my orders.
POLICEMAN: Well I aint got time.
GUARDSMAN: Sorry?
POLICEMAN: Im going home okay.
GUARDSMAN: You need to stop sir. You need to stop your vehicle sir.
COLGAN: Southerners are asking why they had to wait for reinforcements from the other side of the country before order was restored. In Richland, Mississippi the parents of two Guardsmen say their sons should have been here to help.
PRISCILLA AMMERMAN: I mean why arent my sons here to be able to go down and help these fellow Mississippians, you know, why are they in Iraq? You know they should be here in Mississippi because this is what our National Guard Unit should be doing.
COLGAN: Josh and Paul Ammerman were born together and now serve together in the same National Guard unit in Iraq. Their mother says the twins wanted to be home helping after the hurricane with the local knowledge and urgency that only Mississippians could give.
PRISCILLA AMMERMAN: Most of them would have been to Biloxi and would have been to Gulfport and would have known the streets and would have known Gulfport people. Would have had family there that they would have very much cared about and you know they would have been able to do probably a better job you know than a Guard unit from another state would have been able to do.
COLGAN: The Ammermans have four sons. Like many parents they encourage their youngest, the twins, to join the National Guard. It would help pay for their college tuition and provide structure in their lives.
PRISCILLA AMMERMAN: We are children of the Vietnam era. In Vietnam, people joined the National Guard so that they wouldnt be deployed to a foreign soil so no, we didnt consider it. But we thought of a National Guard as a National Guard, you know as someone who protects inside the nation, as a militia, citizen soldiers and we didnt think of that, that they would be deployed overseas.
COLGAN: Filmed here at their base, the Ammerman twins are not only in Iraq but have one of the most dangerous of jobs personal bodyguard for their commander in an area near Baghdad known as the Triangle of Death. Their path often littered with IEDs, improvised explosive devices.
PAUL: Two trucks got hit today by the, I dont know if I can say that, but.
JOSH: You know we go on these missions you know and were convoying. I mean were lucky, knock on wood, we havent been hit by an IED yet theres no telling how many times weve been stopped on the supply routes and stuff by IEDs.
COLGAN: Priscilla Ammerman has requested her sons not be sent on missions together.
PAUL: You cant have brothers running the same missions. Its not possible. For one, I mean if you come into contact, theres the possibility that youll both of them but two, if youve got brothers running in the same convoy and one of them gets hurt, the other ones not going to be able to perform.
COLGAN: Its a well founded fear. Unlike the regular army, National Guard units comprise soldiers from the one state. When a helicopter is shot down or a truck blown up, the tragedy can shatter a whole community.
PRISCILLA AMMERMAN: Its just way more than anybody signed up for for the National Guard for as little benefits and as little pay as a National Guard soldier gets, its just being activated for this amount of time is just not what they signed up for.
COLGAN: Its a price too high for many. As soon as they can, the Ammerman brothers will join the steady stream of Guardsmen and women leaving the service. The Bush Administration is now attempting to stem the flow from the 430,000 strong Guard by offering its part-time soldiers cash incentives. Enlistment bonuses of up to $10,000 for new recruits, up to $15,000 for a soldier who re-enlists but still the numbers are falling and recruitment grows more difficult.
DANA GRAF: While he was over in Iraq, I think it was in January, they wanted them to re-enlist. They gave them signing bonuses and different things to I guess more or less tell them you know hey, you can sign on, stay with the military, we need you and they were dangling, I felt, they were dangling that over the soldiers head right at a time that wasnt really appropriate. That scared me to death, knowing that people were taking money over their husband, you know or their sons. I told my husband, I said I will work three jobs if I have to, I dont need that. We dont need that.
PRISCILLA AMMERMAN: I talked to neighbours who I would never expect of having any criticism of Bushs policies, saying that you know they just need to bring these soldiers home, its time for them to come home.
CONGRESSMAN WALTER JONES: If the President sees fit and starts downsizing today, it would be great with me.
COLGAN: Hes just spent nearly two years away from home but after four short days of leave, Sgt Darrell Graf is back in uniform reporting for duty. His fellow Guardsmen, like him, have a choice to make to stay in or leave.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: For me, was it a high price? I cant say that it was completely. For my family you bet, you bet. Ive got two little girls that, you know they didnt ask for it.
COLGAN: Hes getting out.
SGT DARRELL GRAF: Of all my deployment, when I wasnt able to put my family first, this is the time for me to switch gears and put my family first.