Las Vegas Sun

November 25, 2009

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Letter: Iraq and the wildfires: Is there a connection?

Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

Before letter writer Lee S. Gliddon Jr. castigated Sen. Barbara Boxer over her claims of a shortage of equipment for the California National Guard, he should have done some research ("President gets blamed too much," Oct. 27).

On May 11 California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, commenting on the Guard there, said: "The only area where we run thin is the equipment, because a lot of equipment has gone to Iraq, and it doesn't come back when the troops come back."

Then, at a meeting involving the heads of National Guard units for the states and territories June 6, the head of the National Guard, Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, stated that National Guard units had only 53 percent of the equipment they need to handle state emergencies. It should be clear from these comments that California's National Guard may well have had a shortage of equipment to help fight the many blazes occurring there.

Richard J. Mundy, Las Vegas

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