COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Leaving Military: Stop-Loss
U.S. Army extends Iraq duty for 4,000
ROBERT BURNS, Associated Press
9/25/06
In a
new sign of mounting strain from the war in Iraq, the Army has extended
the combat tours of about 4,000 soldiers who would otherwise be
returning home, a defense official said Monday.
The 1st Brigade of 1st Armored Division, which is operating in the
vicinity of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, will be kept in
place for several weeks beyond their scheduled departure, the official
said. The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because the
decision has not been announced by the Pentagon.
The brigade's home base is in Germany. The soldiers' families were notified of the extension Monday, the official said.
The brigade has about 4,000 soldiers in Iraq. They were scheduled to be
there a maximum of 12 months, but they are not the first to be extended.
In late July the Army extended the Iraq tour of the Alaska-based 172nd
Stryker Brigade. About 300 soldiers from that unit had already returned
home and were required to go back to Iraq. The brigade is now operating
in Baghdad.
The 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division was extended in order to
allow its replacement unit, from the 3rd Infantry Division, the minimum
12 months between overseas tours, the official said. The 3rd Infantry
has already served two tours in Iraq, including the initial invasion of
the country in March 2003.
Last week, the top American commander in the region said the U.S.
military is likely to maintain and may even increase its force of more
than 140,000 troops in Iraq through next spring. Gen. John Abizaid,
commander of the U.S. Central Command, said military leaders would
consider adding troops or extending the Iraq deployments of other units
if needed.
Until sectarian violence spiked early this year, Bush administration
officials had voiced hopes that this election year would see
significant U.S. troop reductions in what has become a widely unpopular
war.
The Army has a stated goal of giving active-duty soldiers two years at
home between overseas combat tours, but it is unable to achieve that
"dwell time," as the Army calls, because it does not have enough
brigades to meet the demands of simultaneous wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. It would not be a problem now if the situation in Iraq had
improved enough to allow the Army to reduce its presence as originally
planned.
Army Secretary Francis Harvey told The Associated Press last week that
the amount of time between deployments has shrunk this year from 18
months to 14 months. In the case of the 3rd Infantry, it appears at
least one brigade will get only about 12 months because heading for
Iraq to replace the extended brigade of the 1st Armored.
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