thedrifter
07-27-07, 01:36 PM
07-24-2007
Stars & Stripes - Pace: Look for 12-Month Tours by Spring 2008
Editor's Note:
The question of tour lengths for our stout-hearted Defenders of Freedom is a hot one. Here's what the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff had to say recently, followed by an insightful analysis of some directly conflicting (and very credible) information from a senior congressional player, Representative John Murtha.
DefenseWatch has been aware for several months of very credible information that 18-month tours were being planned, but chose not to present this information due to its potentially upsetting nature to both the Soldiers and their families. Now that Gen. Peter Pace has knocked down this policy change, we think it appropriate to address the topic. We are pleased and fortunate to be able to present the ANALYSIS item that immediately follows the Star & Stripes article.
My own conclusion, for what it's worth, is to just watch events unfold, and see whose prediction was more accurate.
Certainly, few issues are of more interest to America's Grunts and their loved ones here at home.
Semper fidelis,
Rog Charles
Pace: Look for 12-Month Tours by Spring 2008
Stars & Stripes
JALALABAD, Afghanistan — Rumored 18-month deployments? Not according to Gen. Peter Pace.
And, he said while visiting troops in Afghanistan, tour lengths could return to 12 months by the spring.
“An 18-month tour has zero, zero, none, nada, squat, nothing, no ... validity, OK? I want to make sure you got that,” the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told a soldier with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.
Pace visited Forward Operating Base Fenty as part of a week-long farewell tour in Iraq and Afghanistan before before he retires at the end of September.
Pace said plans are in the works for deployment lengths to go back to 12 months in the early part of next year, and “that over time — not tomorrow — but over time, units … will deploy for 12 months and be home for 24 months, and in that 24 months get family time, get full-spectrum training and be ready to go wherever the nation needs them to go.”
In fact, Pace said, if Afghanistan and Iraq remain the military’s focus, he and the other top brass will stick to a plan that will reduce 15-month deployments to 12 in early 2008, meaning the next active-duty rotations will be away from home for only a year, with more reductions to follow after that.
Of course, all this came with one caveat: “If some other nation around the globe does something stupid tomorrow, and we need to respond to it ... all bets are off,” Pace said.
Also addressing the issue of the drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Pace said, “We are going to see an increase of troop strength in Afghanistan to help the Afghan army before we see a decrease.”
Citing a need for more U.S. trainers to help the Afghan army, Pace said, “We’re going to need another brigade’s worth of troops, about another 3,000-plus troops to be able to have the number of embeds with the Afghan army that will really help them.”
After a few more stops in Afghanistan, Pace said he’s heading to Germany to address family members there, specifically those whose loved ones have been affected by the active-duty tour extension.
“The families serve this nation as well as anybody in uniform, and I want to make sure that we respect them in as many ways as possible, to include standing in front of them, thanking them and answering their questions for what I intend on doing,” Pace said.
ANALYSIS:
By Brian Hart
Brian Heart, the father of the late Pfc. John Hart, who was killed in Iraq in October 2003 while serving in the 173rd Airborne Brigade. He can be reached at Brian.Hart02@comcast.net.
"... top brass will stick to a plan that will reduce 15-month deployments to 12 in early 2008..." I am going to hold Gen. Pace to these words. I have some respect for Gen. Pace because he had the integrity to show up at a major Gold Star families memorial event for New England last October. Unlike weasels like Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Myers, he seemed to understand something deeper about serving one's country than the others.
But I worry that he has just lied to these men and their families and he won't have to face them again because he's punching out in October. I saw the same thing happen in 2004 when Meyers was interviewed by troops in Afghanistan and he swore to them that the humvee armor plants were running 24x7 and he knew that they were not.
So Pace says that these soldiers will be the last to be given 15 month tours instead of 12 months. Congressman Murtha in May told me that the Pentagon intends to go to 18 month tours to keep the troop levels up in Iraq. By my math it appears impossible to keep the troop levels up past March 2008 without such an extension.
My nightmare scenario is that Congress and the President end up vetoing the defense spending bill for 2008 which most assuredly will contain conditions for troop withdrawals from Iraq. The President, as petulant as ever will not withdrawal the troops even though the money is not there to keep them. A series of 2 month budget extensions will be used which effectively paralyzes the war effort. Then the president, realizing that he can't rotate new troops into Iraq without funding will simply extend their tours to 18 months and leave them in Iraq and Afghanistan as "a money saving measure" - but in fact it will be a means of turning the troops and their families against the Congress - namely the Democratically led Congress. It will work troops and families will be interviewed by Stars & Stripes and the usual talking heads will rant and rave on the radio. Of course the troops and their families will become hostages to Washington politics...
Pace should make his promises carefully.
Ellie
Stars & Stripes - Pace: Look for 12-Month Tours by Spring 2008
Editor's Note:
The question of tour lengths for our stout-hearted Defenders of Freedom is a hot one. Here's what the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff had to say recently, followed by an insightful analysis of some directly conflicting (and very credible) information from a senior congressional player, Representative John Murtha.
DefenseWatch has been aware for several months of very credible information that 18-month tours were being planned, but chose not to present this information due to its potentially upsetting nature to both the Soldiers and their families. Now that Gen. Peter Pace has knocked down this policy change, we think it appropriate to address the topic. We are pleased and fortunate to be able to present the ANALYSIS item that immediately follows the Star & Stripes article.
My own conclusion, for what it's worth, is to just watch events unfold, and see whose prediction was more accurate.
Certainly, few issues are of more interest to America's Grunts and their loved ones here at home.
Semper fidelis,
Rog Charles
Pace: Look for 12-Month Tours by Spring 2008
Stars & Stripes
JALALABAD, Afghanistan — Rumored 18-month deployments? Not according to Gen. Peter Pace.
And, he said while visiting troops in Afghanistan, tour lengths could return to 12 months by the spring.
“An 18-month tour has zero, zero, none, nada, squat, nothing, no ... validity, OK? I want to make sure you got that,” the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told a soldier with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.
Pace visited Forward Operating Base Fenty as part of a week-long farewell tour in Iraq and Afghanistan before before he retires at the end of September.
Pace said plans are in the works for deployment lengths to go back to 12 months in the early part of next year, and “that over time — not tomorrow — but over time, units … will deploy for 12 months and be home for 24 months, and in that 24 months get family time, get full-spectrum training and be ready to go wherever the nation needs them to go.”
In fact, Pace said, if Afghanistan and Iraq remain the military’s focus, he and the other top brass will stick to a plan that will reduce 15-month deployments to 12 in early 2008, meaning the next active-duty rotations will be away from home for only a year, with more reductions to follow after that.
Of course, all this came with one caveat: “If some other nation around the globe does something stupid tomorrow, and we need to respond to it ... all bets are off,” Pace said.
Also addressing the issue of the drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Pace said, “We are going to see an increase of troop strength in Afghanistan to help the Afghan army before we see a decrease.”
Citing a need for more U.S. trainers to help the Afghan army, Pace said, “We’re going to need another brigade’s worth of troops, about another 3,000-plus troops to be able to have the number of embeds with the Afghan army that will really help them.”
After a few more stops in Afghanistan, Pace said he’s heading to Germany to address family members there, specifically those whose loved ones have been affected by the active-duty tour extension.
“The families serve this nation as well as anybody in uniform, and I want to make sure that we respect them in as many ways as possible, to include standing in front of them, thanking them and answering their questions for what I intend on doing,” Pace said.
ANALYSIS:
By Brian Hart
Brian Heart, the father of the late Pfc. John Hart, who was killed in Iraq in October 2003 while serving in the 173rd Airborne Brigade. He can be reached at Brian.Hart02@comcast.net.
"... top brass will stick to a plan that will reduce 15-month deployments to 12 in early 2008..." I am going to hold Gen. Pace to these words. I have some respect for Gen. Pace because he had the integrity to show up at a major Gold Star families memorial event for New England last October. Unlike weasels like Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Myers, he seemed to understand something deeper about serving one's country than the others.
But I worry that he has just lied to these men and their families and he won't have to face them again because he's punching out in October. I saw the same thing happen in 2004 when Meyers was interviewed by troops in Afghanistan and he swore to them that the humvee armor plants were running 24x7 and he knew that they were not.
So Pace says that these soldiers will be the last to be given 15 month tours instead of 12 months. Congressman Murtha in May told me that the Pentagon intends to go to 18 month tours to keep the troop levels up in Iraq. By my math it appears impossible to keep the troop levels up past March 2008 without such an extension.
My nightmare scenario is that Congress and the President end up vetoing the defense spending bill for 2008 which most assuredly will contain conditions for troop withdrawals from Iraq. The President, as petulant as ever will not withdrawal the troops even though the money is not there to keep them. A series of 2 month budget extensions will be used which effectively paralyzes the war effort. Then the president, realizing that he can't rotate new troops into Iraq without funding will simply extend their tours to 18 months and leave them in Iraq and Afghanistan as "a money saving measure" - but in fact it will be a means of turning the troops and their families against the Congress - namely the Democratically led Congress. It will work troops and families will be interviewed by Stars & Stripes and the usual talking heads will rant and rave on the radio. Of course the troops and their families will become hostages to Washington politics...
Pace should make his promises carefully.
Ellie