Army leaders cite wear and tear
At gathering, they say terror war taking toll on people, equipment
BY PETER BACQUE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Thursday, May 18, 2006

The global war on terrorism is piling wear and tear on Army people and equipment, top leaders said yesterday.

Army logistics units, like some at Fort Lee and Fort Eustis, likely will be deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan every 10-12 months, said J. Steven Koons with the Army's Forces Command.

As great as the demand on regular combat units is, Koons said, they will deploy only about once every 18 months.

"Anybody in . . . support units are probably going back on their fourth tour" to Iraq or Afghanistan, the Army official said. "Basically you're in the [combat] theater, you're coming back and you're going . . . again."

The service's equipment tanks, weapons, vehicles -- is being used hard.

Abrams tanks that ordinarily run 800 miles a year are operating 5,000-8,000 miles a year in Southwest Asia, said Julian H. Burns with defense contractor BAE Systems.

"Things that are not supposed to break," he said, "are breaking."

The officials spoke to about 500 officers -- including 19 generals -- and civilians at the Association of the United States Army's Logistics Symposium at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

Units such as Fort Lee's two mortuary affairs companies and Fort Lee's 7th Transportation Group, which boasts "No one else does what we do," find themselves in high demand but few in number.

"These guys are turning, turning, turning," Koons said. "It is stressful."

The Army would like to stretch the deployment cycle out so that active-duty units would deploy only once every three years and reserve units only once every six.

"A large portion of our logistics units are in the reserve component -- more than half," said Maj. Gen. Mitchell H. Stevenson, commander of Fort Lee and the Combined Arms Support Command there.

"We've used them a lot," Stevenson said. "We're trying to ease off the reserve component a bit."

Meanwhile, a panel of sergeants told the audience of senior leaders that logistics soldiers need to train for the dangerous missions facing them.

The mind-set of soldiers in supply, maintenance, transportation and field services has to change from "in the rear with the gear" to "I am a warrior competent in logistics," said Command Sgt. Maj. Daniel K. Elder with Army Material Command at Fort Belvoir.

"If we don't train people to be 'convoy killers,'" Sgt. James J. Riley said, "everything else is a moot point."

Riley was with the 507th Maintenance Company when it was ambushed at An Nasiriyah during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Of the 33 U.S. soldiers in his convoy, 11 were killed and nine wounded. Riley and seven others were captured. Riley was rescued April 13, 2003, by Marines north of Baghdad.

"It doesn't matter how good a cook or mechanic they were," Riley said, "if they're dead or wounded on the battlefield."

Contact staff writer Peter Bacqué at pbacque@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6813.

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