British Territorial Army personnel in Iraq

[wulfstan]

Do you guys know anything about the deployment of Territorial Army units to Iraq? There's been a lot of talk about it back in the UK, but I'm unsure as to how many units are there and what kind of roles they're doing.

[martinexsquaddie]

My Brothers Unit Royal rifle volunteers Have got some guys on Guard duty in Kuwait they have just lost there Platoon commander and company commander for duty in Iraq.
They were on standby but have been stood down at the moment

[James]

In the UK is the Territorial Army like the Reserves/National Guard in the U.S.? Please advise.

[Chris1]

In a word, yes.
They provide just what it says on the tin, a reserve. If a regular unit is understrength, sometimes a similar territorial unit will send some of its strength to it. On rare occasions a whole unit will be sent out.

To the question, field hospitals medics and that seemed to be the bulk of it if I remember correctly

[TheBob]

A large number of TA personnel are currently serving in Iraq, primarily bringing Regular units up to full wartime strength. Roughly half of the Brit contingent in Iraq at present is TA, drawn from a number of different infantry units. At present there are no plans for compulsory call-up of entire TA units for either Iraq or Afghanistan, and to do so would be near impossible as most TA units have already lost a large proportion of their personnel under compulsory individual call-up. One TA infantry battalion that I know of has had 160+ troops called up to allow a Regular battalion to deploy in the next wave, as those Regulars have already lost nearly half their peacetime complement to bring another Regiment up to full strength for the last round of deployments. There are, however, plans to form another composite TA infantry battalion for Afghanistan duties, and a number of the Royal Engineers deployed to The Congo are believed to be TA on compulsory call-up. The Brit contribution to the newly announced multinational force in Iraq will be predominantly Regulars, with (it is believed) Paras providing the major combat element, but some TA personnel will be involved. It is understood that an additional 2,000 TA and Reserve personnel will be required to replace troops returning from Iraq in September.

[DeltaWhisky58]

I'm not sure where the US REserve/National Guard units stand in the ORBAT, but in the UK, Teritorial Army/Reserve units are part of the Front line order of battle - i.e. they form part of the overall stregnth of our armed forces rather than a second line force.

[martinexsquaddie]

Plus you would'nt call out the TA to Guard looted shops :o
or for that fact the regular infantry :o
How many wide screen TVs can you get in the back of a 4 tonner p-) p-)