INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Army National Guard ranks near the bottom in the nation in preparedness, with more than a third of its soldiers ill-prepared for military duty, a report concludes.

        Thirty-five percent of Indiana Army Guard soldiers do not meet the individual training requirements outlined in their military job titles, according to a report by federal Guard officials.

        The report was prepared for the Indianapolis Star at the newspaper's request and detailed in Sunday's editions.

        The Star reported that not only is Indiana 43rd among the 54 national guards, so many soldiers have left the Indiana Army Guard in recent years that it now has one of the largest manpower shortages among state guards.

        Those two problems — shrinking numbers and ill-prepared ranks — come as Hoosier citizen soldiers are being called on more and more to help at home and to root out terrorists abroad.

        During the past four years, Indiana's Army Guard has shrunk by more than 10 percent. That has meant less payroll money coming into Indiana during already difficult economic times.

        Federal support for the Indiana Army Guard totaled $151.1 million last year — a decline of 15 percent in just two years.

        Indiana's adjutant general, Maj. Gen. George A. Buskirk Jr., acknowledges the problems, but believes the situation is not dire.

        “We are not going to hell in a handbasket,” Gen. Buskirk said.

        There is no single reason why Indiana has so many ill-prepared soldiers. Turnover takes away experienced, trained soldiers and replaces them with untrained ones.

        And some soldiers balk at being sent away for months of specialized training. At the same time, not enough slots are available in the Army's training schools.

        Gen. Buskirk, who was selected last fall by Gov. Frank O'Bannon as the state's top Guard officer, said more people have left the Guard than have been recruited in recent years because they can get better-paying, less dangerous and time-consuming civilian jobs.

        The Pentagon has authorized Indiana to have 13,476 soldiers in its Army National Guard. As of last week, it had 11,425 soldiers.

        The most recent comparative statistics place Indiana in 40th place among state guards in its percentage of authorized positions that are filled.

        Indiana Guard leaders have responded by pushing hard to staunch the losses, but one result was that recruiters, according to interviews and documents, were routinely obtaining waivers from top Guard officials to enlist people who didn't meet the standards for a soldier.

        To fix the problem, Gen. Buskirk has replaced recruiting commanders.

        The paradox of the Indiana Army Guard is that, from all accounts, it has performed well recently. In the past few years, Guard members have kept the peace in Bosnia, guarded Hoosier airports, and helped in the war on terrorism.

        A second contingent of Army Guard troops is currently on patrol in a part of Bosnia where al-Qaida terrorists are operating. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, 1,100 Indiana Guard members have been activated.

        Gen. Buskirk said no soldier is put in harm's way without being trained, so only Indiana's best go on active duty.

        But the Star found that individual training is bad throughout the National Guard, with Indiana's Guard being among the worst.

        Part of the problem is that getting weekend warriors trained isn't easy because some soldiers can't or won't take the time, said Gen. Buskirk.

        He insists that the quality of soldiers in the Army, including the Army Guard, is much higher than it was when the draft ended in the 1970s.

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