Nevada's Army National Guard commander said the state's military is "in the same boat" as the Guard in other states where most brigades are not combat ready because of equipment shortages.
The problem in Nevada stems from equipment that has been lost in fighting the war on terrorism and having much of it deployed overseas, said Brig. Gen. Frank Gonzales, Nevada's Army Guard commander.
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"It's more difficult to train when these guys come back and they don't have any equipment to train with," he said Tuesday.
He was reacting to comments by the National Guard Bureau chief, Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum who told defense reporters that equipment shortages will cost up to $21 billion to correct.
Gonzales said he is working to replace two Chinook helicopters that were shot down last year in Afghanistan. The unit, Company D of the 113th Aviation Regiment, is being reorganized and Gonzales said he has "been working the issues pretty hard" in Washington, D.C.
Nevada's 1864th Transportation Company, he said, was able to get its trucks back after they were sent to Iraq.
Another one of the state's Army National Guard transportation companies, the 593rd, will soon be deployed to Iraq but it's unclear if Nevada's trucks will be used overseas or the 593rd will use trucks from the unit they are replacing, Gonzales said.
"Right now we're hoping they're going to fall on equipment in country," he said.
Nevada's Army National Guard has about 18 helicopters and 48 tractor-trailer rigs.
The 1st Squadron, 221st Cavalry has about 120 soldiers currently deployed in Iraq and the 593rd Transportation Company will be sending over another 200 by the end of next month.
Blum said more than two-thirds of the Army National Guard's 34 brigades are not combat ready because of equipment shortages.
The budget won't allow the military to complete the personnel training and equipment repairs and replacement that must be done when units return home after deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan.
"I am further behind or in an even more dire situation than the active Army, but we both have the same symptoms, I just have a higher fever," Blum said.
One Army official acknowledged Tuesday that while all active Army units serving in the war zone are "100 percent" ready, the situation is not the same for those at home.
"In the continental United States, there are plenty of units that are rated at significantly less than a C-1 rating," said Lt. Col. Carl S. Ey. "Backlogs at the depots, budget issues and the timeliness of receiving funds to conduct training are all critical to the Army's ability keep their force trained, ready and at the highest readiness level possible."
Once a taboo subject for the military, often buried deep in classified documents, readiness levels -- generally ranked from C-1 (the best) to C-4 (the worst) are now being used as weapons themselves to force money out of Congress and the administration.
And while Army officials still won't specify how many units are at which levels, they are being more open about the overall declining state of readiness.
A key element of the problem is that Army units returning from the war have either left tanks, trucks or other equipment behind or are bringing them home damaged. Once back, many soldiers either leave the Army or move to other posts, forcing leaders to train replacements. As a result, the unit's ratings drop, said Ey, an Army spokesman.
Last week, several House Democrats said publicly that two-thirds of the Army brigades are rated not ready for combat, and Army officials have not disputed that figure. On Tuesday, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., also declined to be specific, but said the Army is "very much worse off" than it was in late 1999 when the military said two of the 10 Army divisions were ranked at the lowest readiness level, C-4.
