Iowa National Guard member Steve Warnstadt remembers when guard recruiting ads asked for commitments of one weekend a month and two weeks a year. But Warnstadt, an intelligence officer, can't recall the last time he spent that little time on guard duties. Warnstadt, a Democratic state senator from Sioux City, has served in the Guard since 1994. He and the roughly 9,500 other Iowa Guard members have seen a massive shift in responsibilities since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Iowa National Guard Lt. Col. Greg Hapgood, a spokesman for the Guard, said the last five years have completely changed the Guard from a strategic reserve to an operational force. That means people who join the Guard today are faced with a far different situation than those who joined before Sept. 11. They understand the high likelihood they could be deployed, a more unusual occurrence in the past. Some Iowa Guard units have been mobilized twice, and another faces the possibility of a third mobilization. The greater responsibility and risk means more lives lost. Before the Iraq war, it was a rare for the Iowa National Guard to lose a member. The Guard has lost 20 lives in the global war on terror, either in combat or some type of accident, illness or injury while serving on active duty. Despite those realities, the Guard has continued to meet its recruiting goals. Warnstadt said he is impressed with the new wave of Iowans stepping up to join. But questions of the state of the Guard also have drifted into the political sphere. Former Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, said in recent years the war in Iraq had weakened the National Guard. He criticized the Bush administration and Congress for failing to spend enough money to equip Guard troops. Iowa National Guard Adjutant General Ron Dardis earlier this year described the Guard as stretched and stressed, but said it is the strongest it had been in generations. Warnstadt said the need for equipment can present challenges. Warnstadt said if shortfalls with equipment or personnel were to occur, Iowa could tap into the resources of other states. That type of sharing was evident recently when Iowa sent a water purification system to Kansas. The Iowa National Guard, composed of the Iowa Army National Guard and the Iowa Air National Guard, has a force of about 9,500 members. Typically, about 1,000 members are serving somewhere else in the world on active duty. Hapgood says that leaves enough members and equipment to support any mission they might be asked to do in Iowa.