Yes. National Guard units are deploying both to Iraq and Afghanistan. Here in North Carolina, the NC National Guard just recently returned from Iraq, and my two deployments to Iraq have been with National Guard units.
Yes, very recently National Guard from Mass. were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan
The same as the active duty army and reserves do.
They get deployed, as well. For a good part of the war in Iraq, National Guard and reserve troops actually were the majority of military personnel in-country.
Go Guard.
Very few National Guard units were sent to Vietnam, even though the draft was in effect. This led to the creation of the Total Force Policy, which effectively established the Regular Army, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard as a single, unitary force, and is the reason the deployment of National Guard units has been so widespread in Iraq (both in 1991 and in the current operation) and in Afghanistan.
People used to join the Guard for just that reason: to stay out of the regular Army that got shipped overseas and not used to bolster a destroyed dying military the way they are used now in Iraq.
The ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Governor of the state is the main person in charge of that state's National Guard. The President of the United States takes charge of any National Guard unit at any time they want to. An example would be; the Governor of the state deploys National Guard troops to floods and fires around the state when needed. The President will deploy National Guard troops overseas to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Republican Guard - Iraq - was created in 1980.
Republican Guard - Iraq - ended in 2003.
The National Guard is a military organization and the members are expected to train and serve as Military persons in times of crisis's. Currently there are many thousand US national guard servicemen and women in Iraq and other hot spots. So yes, you can die.