Posted on 04/14/2004 5:54:28 PM PDT by Kaslin
WASHINGTON - About 21,000 American soldiers in Iraq (news - web sites) who were to return this month to their home bases in Louisiana and Germany will have their tours extended at least three months to help combat the surge in anti-occupation violence, defense officials said Wednesday.
The decision, which has not been announced publicly, breaks the Army's promise to soldiers and their families that assignments in Iraq would be limited to 12 months. The affected soldiers already have been in Iraq for a year.
In addition, about 1,000 soldiers in transportation units based in Kuwait will be extended beyond one year, a senior defense official said. Most of them are in the National Guard or Reserve. They are deemed critical to re-supplying the troops based in Iraq.
Welcome-home ceremonies at Fort Polk, La., scheduled for this month, have been canceled. In Baumholder, Germany, some soldiers' families have stopped marking the days off the calendar.
The top U.S. commander for the Middle East, Gen. John Abizaid, decided that the increase in violence was so threatening that he needed to have the extra firepower, officials say.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was fine-tuning the new plan Wednesday; his spokesmen declined to discuss details. They said it was possible that Rumsfeld would make it public on Thursday.
The tour extensions come at a particularly delicate moment. At least 87 troops have been killed in April, the deadliest month since they set foot in Iraq in March 2003. The number of wounded also has skyrocketed.
Of the estimated 21,000 soldiers affected by the extension in Iraq, about 18,000 are in the 1st Armored Division. About 2,800 are with the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment.
The advantage of keeping soldiers of the 1st Armored and the 2nd Armored Cavalry in Iraq for an extra three months — rather than bringing in an equivalent number from elsewhere — is that these soldiers have unmatched combat experience in Iraq.
The Army is so stretched by its commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan (news - web sites), the Balkans and elsewhere that it has few, if any, forces immediately available to substitute in Iraq for the 1st Armored or 2nd Armored Cavalry.
Also, these units have been heavily involved in one of the most important U.S. military missions there: training thousands of Iraqi security forces. Those Iraqi army and civil defense corps members are central to the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s plan for eventually turning over military control to the Iraqis and pulling out U.S. troops.
Abizaid had planned, as part of the current rotation of fresh forces into Iraq, to reduce the U.S. troop presence from about 135,000 to about 115,000.
But the surge this month in anti-occupation violence in restive areas in and around Baghdad and in the south has forced Abizaid to change course. He indicated on Tuesday that he needed more forces than originally planned. He would not tell reporters exactly how many or where he would get them.
Fort Polk, the Army base in Louisiana that is home to the 2nd Armored Cavalry, issued a news release last Thursday quoting the regiment's commander, Col. Bradley W. May, as saying "elements" of his unit "will remain in theater longer than initially announced."
He did not say how many soldiers were affected. A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday it would be about 2,800.
The 2nd Squadron of the 2nd Armored Cavalry recently returned home to Louisiana, but the rest of the unit will remain in Iraq. May did not say how much longer his unit would remain in Iraq. Other defense officials said family members were told the soldiers probably would be back at Fort Polk in about four months. They likely will be in Iraq an extra three months, then take a month to redeploy.
These are not the first units to be extended in Iraq beyond one year. A brigade of the 82nd Airborne was extended by about three months
Rumsfeld has said he would grant any request that Abizaid made to adjust the level of his combat power. President Bush (news - web sites) said at a news conference Tuesday night that he was ready to provide as many extra troops as U.S. commanders on the ground say they need.
The 1st Armored and the 2nd Armored Cavalry are part of a contingent of about 135,000 U.S. soldiers who were being replaced this spring by a fresh group of soldiers and Marines. The 101st Airborne, the 4th Infantry Division and other units recently left Iraq, with the arrival of the 1st Infantry Division, a Stryker Brigade, the 1st Cavalry Division and the 1st Marine Division.
While surely disappointed that his troops must remain longer than planned, the commander of the 2nd Armored Cavalry has told them they should be ready to help finish the job.
"We are being called to end the fight against Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army and we will," May said, referring to the militia of the radical Shiite cleric who has incited violence against the U.S.-led occupation forces in southern cities including Najaf.
Still, the change of plans is bound to take a psychological toll. In a letter to his troops in January, May assured them that their time in Iraq was "fast approaching its conclusion."
In Baumholder, Germany, Matilda Adams and her two small children have stopped crossing the days off the calendar until the return of husband Sgt. Tory Adams, who had been due back this week.
"I was counting down and that hurt," said Adams, of Danville, Va. "I'm trying to go about it differently for the extension."
Their primary mission is to be deployed into a combat zone. Catastrophe intervention is only a tertiary mission of the NG/AR.
You can check that by going to the website of any State NG and checking their mission statement.
In my 20 years of active and reserve service, I can't ever recall any orders ever being issued to me and have never hear of any orders ever issued to my wife, to my brother, to my sister, to my uncle or to my brother-in-law (who came back from his second tour as a helo pilot in Iraq this past month) or to any other sevicemember with "promises" attached.
My wife's grandfather was even called back to active duty after several years of retirement from the Navy and shipped off to the South Pacific "for the duration" after Pearl Harbor.
The five operative words that were drummed into our heads again and again and again were, "the needs of the service".
One would hope the remaining 270 million of us would find a way to cope.
Every tour of duty has a projected rotation date. If everything goes smoothly, once that time comes, you get rotated.
If things don't go smoothly, the "needs of the service" kick in and you are extended.
The uprising by the Batthist dead-enders and the Shiite radicals in Iraq this month comes under the heading of "things not going smoothly".
The bottom line is that all rotations occur when they are supposed to occur unless you get extension orders in which case they don't occur. That is true in peacetime, it is true during wartime and it is especially true in the middle of an enemy offensive.
I'll be honest. I was real pissed to find out hubby was late coming home because of some self important blowhard congressman!
But late because we're at war and he's needed? That's the kind of thing WE signed up for.
Appreciate your explaining that to me. I assume he would have been in at least his fifties, inactive reserve, military obligation fulfilled to all requirements of the Selective Service System.
He was born in 1894 and had been collecting retirement pay for several years before Pearl Harbor after 20 years of active duty service in the U.S. Navy.
The "Selective Service System" had nothing to do with it. The Selective Service deals with civilians and retired Navy is not considered "civilian".
Unless you retire from the Navy with 30 years of service under your belt, you retire as a member of the Fleet Reserve.
If a war breaks out, you need to read the Fleet Reserve fine print. (Below)
From what I heard from my mother-in-law, it seems that he was not a fine-print-reading kinda guy so it came as quite a shock to him when the Navy called him out of retirement back to active duty and shipped him off to the Pacific war theater for the duration. He was so bitter about the whole thing that he told his wife that he wanted no mention of the Navy on his gravestone. After he died, he only had his Masons insignia on his gravestone..........for a few years until his wife added "BMCS, USN (ret.)"
Fleet Reserve — "The Fleet Reserve was established to provide experienced personnel for the first stages of mobilization during an emergency or in time of war. Therefore, the Fleet Reserve is made up of former enlisted members of the regular Navy or Naval Reserve who can fill such billets without further training. As an enlisted member of the regular Navy or Naval Reserve, you are eligible for transfer to the Fleet Reserve upon the completion of at least 20 years of active service in the armed forces. While serving as a member of the Fleet Reserve, you may be ordered to active duty without your consent."
That's kinda' arrogant, don't you think? Considering that you have no idea who I am, or who I care about that is or might be in harm's way?
Is it a happy thing that troops are being extended beyond the time when CNN promised they'd be home? Of course not. I don't suppose there are many people happy about that. War is funny that way. Things happen in wars that make people unhappy.
I guess we should lobby CNN and find out why they were wrong about what they said. Or maybe send letters to the Secretary of CNN that sits in the Cabinet. Maybe they could explain it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.