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National Guard unit to return from Iraq to Katrina

Posted on: Monday, 5 September 2005, 18:59 CDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A National Guard unit based in New Orleans will return from the war in Iraq on Saturday to deal with the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the flood that followed, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

"We have got several hundred soldiers that are coming back from a year in combat to this," said Samantha Bingham, a spokeswoman for Fort Polk, an army base northwest of New Orleans.

"Many, many of them are from southern Louisiana," Bingham said in a telephone interview.

Several hundred members of the 2,800-strong 256th Army National Guard's 141st field artillery section are due to return early on Saturday morning, Bingham said.

"That unit was headquartered out of New Orleans," Bingham said.

The members of the unit will be given immediate four-day passes to give them time to figure out their situations, she said. They will then be given the option of demobilizing from active duty and going back to civilian life, Bingham said.

"They will also be given the option of going right back on active duty and serving as National Guard soldiers in the relief efforts," she said.

"The soldiers who lost their homes and their families are refugees, if they go back on active duty, they will be housed at Fort Polk." The rest will be the responsibility of the National Guard, she said.

Bingham said Fort Polk was busy setting up temporary housing in barracks for displaced members of the military and would find family housing for the long term.

Source: REUTERS

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