from those in the know
Bay St.Louis Miss.
The deployment of thousands of National Guard troops from Mississippi and Louisiana in Iraq when Hurricane Katrina struck hindered those States initial storm response, military and civilian officals said yesterday.
Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said that arguably a day of response time at most was lost due to the absence of the Mississippi National Guard's 155th Infantry Brigade and Louisiana's 256th Infantry Brigade each with thousands of troops in Iraq.