Mitch Landrieu: “Today there are 91,555 members of the National Guard and our Reserve armed forces serving bravely in Iraq, Afghanistan…”

“Today there are 91,555 members of the National Guard and our Reserve armed forces serving bravely in Iraq, Afghanistan, and any other part of the world our country calls them to serve. The President is sending an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq in one final push to bring stability to that country. Regardless of what we think about this plan, Americans stand by our troops. They have the best equipment and training for their mission and we would never deny them the support they need. But back at home, there is still a great deal that we can do to support our guard and reserves families. When guardsmen and reservists are deployed they leave their families, their jobs, and their communities behind, causing tremendous stress on the home front and in the workplace. Families often lose the main bread winner when a citizen soldier gets deployed. They may have trouble paying bills, the rent, the mortgage, or buying medicine for their children. The reason these families cannot make ends meet is because for Guardsmen and Reservists military pay is often less than civilian pay. We call that the 'pay gap.' According to the most recent Status Forces Survey of Reserve Components, 51 percent of our citizen soldiers take a pay cut when they get deployed and 11 percent of them lose more than $2,500 per month.”