<p>I really want to enlist in the national guard. But at the same time I don’t want to fight in Iraq and get killed. Even if I don’t fight…is there a possibility I will die? Please Help!</p>
<p>bum 10 char</p>
<p>your chance of dying in the guard is not much higher than your chance of dying at home. your chance of getting injured is pretty high if you do enter combat, but dying in combat is rare.</p>
<p>CC is probably not the right place to ask this question.</p>
<p>don’t worry.there are re-spawn points.</p>
<p>whats a re-spawn point?</p>
<p>If you go to Iraq there is always a possibility to get killed. If you don’t want a chance of going to Iraq that isn’t going to happen.</p>
<p>And – how do you feel about being expected to kill other people? If you’re OK with killing enemy soldiors, how’d you feel about accidentally killing civilians including children?</p>
<p>but there’s a large possibility of being killed anywhere. disease? car accidents? violent crime? and of course there is the certainty that we will all die at some point.</p>
<p>well, i don’t want to kill anyone…I don’t want to be on the front line</p>
<p>You don’t have to go into the infantry in order to join the national guard. </p>
<p>[www.1-800-GO-GUARD.com</a> | MOS LIST](<a href=“http://www.1800goguard.com/training/mos.php]www.1-800-GO-GUARD.com”>http://www.1800goguard.com/training/mos.php)</p>
<p>“but there’s a large possibility of being killed anywhere. disease? car accidents? violent crime?”</p>
<p>Actually, there’s not a large possibility of being killed anywhere when you are a relatively young U.S. citizen. Most people in the U.S. live until their 70s. </p>
<p>Certainly, going into combat places one at a higher than normal risk of being killed or maimed (and the injuries that people are surviving in this war are horrendous.).</p>
<p>A quick Google yielded this USA Today article from 2004. You could check to find more current info.</p>
<p>"WASHINGTON — In a reversal of trends from past wars, part-time soldiers in the Army National Guard are about one-third more likely to be killed in Iraq than full-time active-duty soldiers serving there, a USA TODAY analysis of Pentagon statistics shows.
According to figures furnished by the military branches, the active Army has sent about 250,000 soldiers to Iraq, and 622 have been killed. That works out to one death for every 402 soldiers who have deployed. About 37,000 Army Guard soldiers have been sent to Iraq since the war began and 140 have died there — one fatality for every 264 soldiers who have served, or about a 35% higher death rate.</p>
<p>There are several reasons for the greater death rates among so-called part-time soldiers, who generally drill one weekend a month and two weeks during the summer when there’s no war. The Pentagon has called up thousands of part-time troops for tours of a year or more in Iraq. Some of the most dangerous missions, including driving convoys and guarding bases and other facilities, frequently are assigned to Guard and reserve troops. Iraqi insurgents have attacked convoys with roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades, and a Tennessee Guardsman publicly complained to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week about the lack of armor on some vehicles…"</p>
<p>[USATODAY.com</a> - Rate of Guard deaths higher](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-12-13-guard-deaths_x.htm]USATODAY.com”>http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-12-13-guard-deaths_x.htm)</p>
<p>AP story from 2005:
"WASHINGTON — The National Guard and Reserves are suffering a strikingly higher share of U.S. casualties in Iraq, their portion of American military deaths nearly doubling since last year.</p>
<p>Reservists have accounted for one-quarter of all U.S. deaths since the Iraq war began, but the proportion has grown over time. It was 10 percent for the five weeks it took to topple Baghdad in the spring of 2003, and 20 percent for 2004 as a whole.</p>
<p>The trend accelerated this year. For the first nine months of 2005 reservists accounted for 36 percent of U.S. deaths, and for August and September it was 56 percent, according to Pentagon figures.</p>
<p>The Army National Guard, Army Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve accounted for more than half of all U.S. deaths in August and in September — the first time that has happened in consecutive months. The only other month in which it even approached 50 percent was June 2004…"</p>
<p>[The</a> Seattle Times: Nation & World: Reservist deaths high in Iraq](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002553110_guard11.html]The”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002553110_guard11.html)</p>
<p>this sucks…i want to help me country but if I do…I know I’ll probably die…thats my luck!</p>
<p>According to my sis, there’s a higher chance of you getting shot in Washington DC alone than getting killed in Iraq as a National Guardsman. My sister is in the National Guard, and she was deployed last month. She is now in Baghdad, and her role there is being military police (that is, patrolling areas, guarding prisons, other guarding posts, etc). </p>
<p>If you are not in the field, the one of the only risks you have is being injured by an I.E.D (improvised explosive device) All those articles in the previous posts were from 2-3 years ago–I’m pretty sure the death rates in Iraq have gone down by a lot now.</p>
<p>Joining the National Guard is a really big responsibility, but you also gain a lot of respect in doing so. The army itself will train you to become a soldier as well as a leader. It’s the best way to help your country…that is, if you’re up to it. ;)</p>
<p>If you are that concerned about going to war, joining the military is probably not the right choice for you.</p>
<p>Now, if you are simply looking at news stories and deciding that you will die by joining the service, you need to do a LOT more research.</p>
<p>^Ditto .</p>
<p>NY Times Jan 1, 2007:
3,000 Deaths in Iraq, Countless Tears at Home</p>
<p>"On Dec. 4, Specialist Hess slipped onto the ever-expanding list of American military fatalities in Iraq, one that has increased by an average of more than three a day since Oct. 1, the highest three-month toll in two years. On Sunday, with the announcement of the death in Baghdad of Specialist Dustin R. Donica, 22, of Spring, Tex., the list reached the somber milestone of at least 3,000 deaths since the March 2003 invasion.</p>
<p>The landmark reflects how much more dangerous and muddled a soldier’s job in Iraq has become in the face of a growing and increasingly sophisticated insurgency. Violence in the country is at an all-time high, according to a Pentagon report released last month. December was the third deadliest month for American troops since the start of the war, with insurgents claiming 111 soldiers’ lives. October and November also witnessed a high number of casualties, 106 and 68 respectively, as American forces stepped up combat operations to try to stabilize Baghdad.</p>
<p>“It escalated while I was there,” said Capt. Scott Stanford, a National Guard officer who was a commander of a headquarters company in Ramadi for a year, arriving in June 2005. “When we left this June, it was completely unhinged. There was a huge increase in the suicide car bombs we had. The I.E.D.’s were bigger and more complex.”</p>
<p>“And it was very tense before we left in terms of snipers,” said Captain Stanford, a member of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “I don’t know if there were more of them, or if they were getting better.”"
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/01/us/01deaths.html?_r=1&oref=slogin[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/01/us/01deaths.html?_r=1&oref=slogin</a></p>
<p>CC is NOT the place to be getting your advice on this. Were all awesome, friendly, and generally intelligent people, but this is a decision that requires alot more guidance than “OMG what SAT-IIs should I take?!?!?”. That being said, your friendly local recruitment office isn’t the place either. Talk to vets. of the Iraq war (or any war), your GC, your favorite teachers, your parents, your frinds but don’t seek guidance on a forum devoted to college admission.</p>
<p>I wish you well in your decision making.</p>