thedrifter
07-16-03, 01:30 PM
Special report: Military won't be overextended, says Bush, but some troops beg to differ
By Jon R. Anderson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, July 15, 2003
The U.S. commander in chief raised eyebrows among many in uniform last week when he promised not to stretch the military too thin, even as some 500,000 troops find themselves deployed or assigned overseas.
President Bush, when asked in South Africa about the possibility of inserting peacekeeping troops into war-torn Liberia, made a simple pledge: “We won’t overextend our troops, period.”
“Too late,” says Sgt. Robert Page matter-of-factly. The Heidelberg, Germany-based medic has seen nine major deployments in his 10-year career, much of it “back and forth to Bosnia and Kosovo.”
“We’re already being asked to do a lot with very little,” he said. “Right now we’re only 50 percent staffed where I work because of all the deployments.”
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and those who speak on his behalf have maintained the same message over the past few weeks when asked if U.S. forces are overextended.
“The military is prepared to meet any of the challenges to support our national security,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman echoed when asked Monday.
While operational tempos for services have been higher than usual, and some troops are away from home longer than anticipated fighting in the Middle East, the military force structure has not been stretched beyond its limits, defense officials say.
“There is no question that the Army optempo is relatively high these days,” said Army spokesman Maj. Chris Conway.
Are they overextended?
“No. The Army is able to perform its missions worldwide in 120 countries as we speak,” Conway said.
Could Army units take on more missions and be successful?
“Not to sound flip, but that depends on what the missions were. We can and are performing our missions through the tireless efforts of our active duty and reserve component soldiers,” he said.
Doing more with less has been the mantra of the U.S. military since the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of the last Gulf War. Since 1990, the active-duty military has shrunk by almost 50 percent, from 2.1 million troops in uniform to 1.3 million.
Replacing the standoff with the Soviet Union has been a series of crises, from the failed humanitarian aid mission in Somalia and the invasion of Haiti to peacekeeping in the Balkans to counter-terrorism fights in Central Asia and the Pacific, and now to another war in the Middle East.
“We’re already overstretched — big time,” said Air Force Staff Sgt. Tom Yingling, a computer expert with the 4th Air Operations Support Squadron based in Heidelberg.
Yingling, fresh from combat duty in Iraq where his unit supported V Corps’ drive into Baghdad, said he’s already been told to prepare for duty in Africa should Germany-based forces get the nod to deploy to Liberia. And if not there, he said, “We’ll probably get put into the Afghanistan rotation.”
That’s tough news to break to his wife who, in the three years since they moved to Germany, has watched him don desert fatigues for two Middle East deployments and a five-month stint in Turkey.
“The past few years have been the busiest I’ve ever seen the military,” said Yingling, a 10-year veteran.
Full plate
While the past decade has been busy, it’s the here and now that has many in uniform feeling out of breath. Peacekeeping commitments continue in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and the Sinai while the almost-2-year-old war on terrorism has stretched forces into new, far-flung places.
For example, the 10th Mountain Division is headed back to Afghanistan to take over military operations there and train the Afghan army.
And, 100 Air Force troops have been deployed to West Africa to support the U.S. military survey team in Liberia.
Iraq took the spotlight off Afghanistan, but grueling combat operations continue there for some 10,000 troops still fighting Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents. Thousands more support that effort from bases in Uzbekistan and other countries in the region.
On the other side of the globe, U.S. forces are back in the Philippines helping train local units to fight guerrillas. And similar operations are ongoing in places such as Yemen, Georgia, Pakistan and Djibouti.
In the Army alone, officials say, there are currently 370,000 troops deployed to more than 120 countries.
Retiring Central Command leader Gen. Tommy Franks told Congressional leaders on Wednesday that “for the foreseeable future” the United States will need to maintain the current number of troops on the ground in Iraq — about 148,000 troops — plus thousands more supporting the effort in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and other Middle East locations.
And Franks said the Pentagon would not be reluctant to push more troops into the region if needed.
“There has been a suggestion that perhaps there should be more troops. And, in fact, I can tell you in the presence of this secretary that if more troops are necessary, this secretary’s going to say yes,” Franks told lawmakers, testifying beside Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
A 12-division strategy?
Just how the military — particularly the Army — will be able to sustain even the current force levels in the Middle East remains to be seen.
“It’s going to be very tough,” said retired Lt. Gen. Theodore Stroup, now the vice president of the Association of the U.S. Army. “With five division flags there now, we have essentially half the combat power of the Army in Iraq.”
With 10 divisions in the Army, and one of those fixed in Korea, that leaves four divisions available to relieve the forces now in Iraq and to sustain operations in Afghanistan.
“Beware the 12-division strategy for a 10-division Army,” cautioned outgoing Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, at his June 11 retirement ceremony in Washington. “Our soldiers and families bear the risk and the hardship of carrying a mission load that exceeds what force capabilities we can sustain, so we must alleviate risk and hardship by our willingness to resource the mission requirement.”
To maintain so many forces in Iraq, even for a few years, said Stroup, “the cost is going to be in morale and re-enlistment rates and recruiting. It’s something I know the leadership is worrying about.”
And few, if any, units have felt the strain of deployment more than the Georgia-based 3rd Infantry Division.
During his testimony last week, Rumsfeld said the division — whose troops have been in the Middle East for more than year now — has begun redeployment to the United States. But it will take until September before all those troops are home.
“The services and the joint staff have been working with Central Command to develop a rotation plan so that we can, in fact, see that we treat these terrific young men and young women in a way that’s respectful of their lives and their circumstances and the wonderful job they did,” Rumsfeld said.
And while officials are eagerly awaiting the arrival of a 30,000-strong international peacekeeping force to assist in Iraq later this summer, Rumsfeld added, “We’re going to have to replace U.S. forces with U.S. forces in large measure.”
Hello, I must be going
In practical terms, that means many of the troops now returning from Iraq — or Afghanistan or the Balkans — and moving on their next duty assignment may find themselves deploying straight back out again.
With three-year tours in any given unit usually the norm, about one-third of the U.S. military moves on to new assignments every year, most of them in the summer.
Pfc. Jason McKereghan just got back from Iraq. A cook, McKereghan was assigned to the 3rd Corps Support Command, headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, during the war, but is now moving on to his next unit, the 28th Transportation Battalion based in Mannheim.
“I don’t know if the military is overextended or not,” said Mc- Kereghan, “but it feels pretty close. I know I’ll feel pretty stretched if I have to go right back to Iraq with my new unit.”
Some are already finding themselves returning to desert duty.
The Illesheim, Germany-based 2nd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment spent seven months in the Middle East before going home in mid-May. Because the Apache unit was breaking up upon its return, the 2/6 Cavalry soldiers have scattered to other units — dozens of them to outfits already in the desert, or likely soon to go there.
continued.........
By Jon R. Anderson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, July 15, 2003
The U.S. commander in chief raised eyebrows among many in uniform last week when he promised not to stretch the military too thin, even as some 500,000 troops find themselves deployed or assigned overseas.
President Bush, when asked in South Africa about the possibility of inserting peacekeeping troops into war-torn Liberia, made a simple pledge: “We won’t overextend our troops, period.”
“Too late,” says Sgt. Robert Page matter-of-factly. The Heidelberg, Germany-based medic has seen nine major deployments in his 10-year career, much of it “back and forth to Bosnia and Kosovo.”
“We’re already being asked to do a lot with very little,” he said. “Right now we’re only 50 percent staffed where I work because of all the deployments.”
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and those who speak on his behalf have maintained the same message over the past few weeks when asked if U.S. forces are overextended.
“The military is prepared to meet any of the challenges to support our national security,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman echoed when asked Monday.
While operational tempos for services have been higher than usual, and some troops are away from home longer than anticipated fighting in the Middle East, the military force structure has not been stretched beyond its limits, defense officials say.
“There is no question that the Army optempo is relatively high these days,” said Army spokesman Maj. Chris Conway.
Are they overextended?
“No. The Army is able to perform its missions worldwide in 120 countries as we speak,” Conway said.
Could Army units take on more missions and be successful?
“Not to sound flip, but that depends on what the missions were. We can and are performing our missions through the tireless efforts of our active duty and reserve component soldiers,” he said.
Doing more with less has been the mantra of the U.S. military since the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of the last Gulf War. Since 1990, the active-duty military has shrunk by almost 50 percent, from 2.1 million troops in uniform to 1.3 million.
Replacing the standoff with the Soviet Union has been a series of crises, from the failed humanitarian aid mission in Somalia and the invasion of Haiti to peacekeeping in the Balkans to counter-terrorism fights in Central Asia and the Pacific, and now to another war in the Middle East.
“We’re already overstretched — big time,” said Air Force Staff Sgt. Tom Yingling, a computer expert with the 4th Air Operations Support Squadron based in Heidelberg.
Yingling, fresh from combat duty in Iraq where his unit supported V Corps’ drive into Baghdad, said he’s already been told to prepare for duty in Africa should Germany-based forces get the nod to deploy to Liberia. And if not there, he said, “We’ll probably get put into the Afghanistan rotation.”
That’s tough news to break to his wife who, in the three years since they moved to Germany, has watched him don desert fatigues for two Middle East deployments and a five-month stint in Turkey.
“The past few years have been the busiest I’ve ever seen the military,” said Yingling, a 10-year veteran.
Full plate
While the past decade has been busy, it’s the here and now that has many in uniform feeling out of breath. Peacekeeping commitments continue in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and the Sinai while the almost-2-year-old war on terrorism has stretched forces into new, far-flung places.
For example, the 10th Mountain Division is headed back to Afghanistan to take over military operations there and train the Afghan army.
And, 100 Air Force troops have been deployed to West Africa to support the U.S. military survey team in Liberia.
Iraq took the spotlight off Afghanistan, but grueling combat operations continue there for some 10,000 troops still fighting Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents. Thousands more support that effort from bases in Uzbekistan and other countries in the region.
On the other side of the globe, U.S. forces are back in the Philippines helping train local units to fight guerrillas. And similar operations are ongoing in places such as Yemen, Georgia, Pakistan and Djibouti.
In the Army alone, officials say, there are currently 370,000 troops deployed to more than 120 countries.
Retiring Central Command leader Gen. Tommy Franks told Congressional leaders on Wednesday that “for the foreseeable future” the United States will need to maintain the current number of troops on the ground in Iraq — about 148,000 troops — plus thousands more supporting the effort in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and other Middle East locations.
And Franks said the Pentagon would not be reluctant to push more troops into the region if needed.
“There has been a suggestion that perhaps there should be more troops. And, in fact, I can tell you in the presence of this secretary that if more troops are necessary, this secretary’s going to say yes,” Franks told lawmakers, testifying beside Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
A 12-division strategy?
Just how the military — particularly the Army — will be able to sustain even the current force levels in the Middle East remains to be seen.
“It’s going to be very tough,” said retired Lt. Gen. Theodore Stroup, now the vice president of the Association of the U.S. Army. “With five division flags there now, we have essentially half the combat power of the Army in Iraq.”
With 10 divisions in the Army, and one of those fixed in Korea, that leaves four divisions available to relieve the forces now in Iraq and to sustain operations in Afghanistan.
“Beware the 12-division strategy for a 10-division Army,” cautioned outgoing Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, at his June 11 retirement ceremony in Washington. “Our soldiers and families bear the risk and the hardship of carrying a mission load that exceeds what force capabilities we can sustain, so we must alleviate risk and hardship by our willingness to resource the mission requirement.”
To maintain so many forces in Iraq, even for a few years, said Stroup, “the cost is going to be in morale and re-enlistment rates and recruiting. It’s something I know the leadership is worrying about.”
And few, if any, units have felt the strain of deployment more than the Georgia-based 3rd Infantry Division.
During his testimony last week, Rumsfeld said the division — whose troops have been in the Middle East for more than year now — has begun redeployment to the United States. But it will take until September before all those troops are home.
“The services and the joint staff have been working with Central Command to develop a rotation plan so that we can, in fact, see that we treat these terrific young men and young women in a way that’s respectful of their lives and their circumstances and the wonderful job they did,” Rumsfeld said.
And while officials are eagerly awaiting the arrival of a 30,000-strong international peacekeeping force to assist in Iraq later this summer, Rumsfeld added, “We’re going to have to replace U.S. forces with U.S. forces in large measure.”
Hello, I must be going
In practical terms, that means many of the troops now returning from Iraq — or Afghanistan or the Balkans — and moving on their next duty assignment may find themselves deploying straight back out again.
With three-year tours in any given unit usually the norm, about one-third of the U.S. military moves on to new assignments every year, most of them in the summer.
Pfc. Jason McKereghan just got back from Iraq. A cook, McKereghan was assigned to the 3rd Corps Support Command, headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, during the war, but is now moving on to his next unit, the 28th Transportation Battalion based in Mannheim.
“I don’t know if the military is overextended or not,” said Mc- Kereghan, “but it feels pretty close. I know I’ll feel pretty stretched if I have to go right back to Iraq with my new unit.”
Some are already finding themselves returning to desert duty.
The Illesheim, Germany-based 2nd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment spent seven months in the Middle East before going home in mid-May. Because the Apache unit was breaking up upon its return, the 2/6 Cavalry soldiers have scattered to other units — dozens of them to outfits already in the desert, or likely soon to go there.
continued.........