So, what are your chances of being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan? The Department of Defense recently released deployment data, from 11 December 2001, to 31 October 2004 for Iraq and Afghanistan.
955,609 (about 36%) of our total Active Duty/Reserve/National Guard forces of 2,656,300 have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan during this period. 651,622 (24.5%) have one deployment during this period, and 303,987 (11.4%) have deployed more than once.
For active duty, 708,428 (48.2%) of the force has deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. 494,482 (33.6%) have deployed once, while 213.946 (14.6%) have deployed more than once.
For the National Guard and Reserves, 247,181 (20.8%) have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. 157,140 (13.3%) have one deployment and 90,041 (7.5%) have multiple deployments.
A Little Historical Perspective
DoD estimates that about 31 percent (about 1,790,000) active duty members served in the combat theator during the Korean War, from 1950 to 1953.
About 3,400,000 military members (about 39 percent of active duty) served in Soutyheast Asia during the Vietnam War, from 1955 to 1975.
During the first Gulf War, DoD statistics show that 584,342 active duty members and 110,208 National Guard and Reservists deployed to the Gulf during DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM. That represents about 26 percent of the 2.2 million on active duty at the time.
Deployment by Branch
| Branch | # Deployed | % Deployed | # One Deployment | % One Deployment | # Muliple Deployments | % Multiple Deployments |
| Army | 279,393 | 55.9% | 182,837 | 36.6% | 96,556 | 19.3% |
| Air Force | 151,050 | 39.8% | 104,103 | 27.4% | 46,947 | 12.4% |
| Navy | 177,476 | 47.2% | 134,472 | 35.8% | 43,004 | 11.4% |
| Marine Corps | 98,979 | 56.2% | 71,710 | 40.7% | 27,269 | 15.5% |
| Coast Guard | 1,530 | 4.0% | 1,360 | 3.6% | 170 | 0.4% |
| Army Reserves | 64,978 | 19.7% | 41,777 | 12.7% | 23,201 | 7.0% |
| Army National Guard | 90,649 | 25.9% | 58,133 | 16.6% | 32,516 | 9.3% |
| Air Force Reserves | 23,023 | 17.8% | 11,893 | 9.2% | 11,130 | 8.6% |
| Air National Guard | 41,093 | 37.4% | 22,194 | 20.2% | 18,899 | 17.2% |
| Marine Corps Reserves | 15,595 | 15.8% | 13,772 | 13.9% | 18,823 | 1.8% |
| Coast Guard Reserves | 188 | 1.4% | 186 | 1.4% | 2 | 0.0% |
