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There is no active duty soldier who is ever promised anything regarding assignments. Every soldier takes an oath to obey the orders of the officers appointed over....now that part is certain.

I'd like to see the army do a study on the retention rate of these soldiers. After broken promises many will decide that the Army doesn't love them as much as they love the Army.

Right now retention rates of active duty soldiers is UP. It's a real wacko thing....they get psyched up, pumped up about doing something meaningful with their lives...things that will change the world.

The 82d Airborne has already MET its FY04 recruiting goal and they're only in the 3rd quarter and most of the year was spent overseas in Iraq fighting bad guys.

The NG might be a different story. They've got those anachronistic promotion rules that drag down the morale of their younger troops.

I'd like to see the army do a study on the retention rate of these soldiers. After broken promises many will decide that the Army doesn't love them as much as they love the Army.

My husband was in the Navy for 9 years. His homecoming was often delayed a day or two for who knows what reason! Sometimes they were delayed by several days because some big wig wanted a ride on a submarine!

It happens, and the families live with this. If I could handle an extra week so some big shot congressperson could play onboard a submarine, these families will understand that we are at war and going through a particularly bad patch.

Overall, we do need more troops. Deployments are getting too long, and were being extended too long well before 911. That overall situation certainly contributes to retention. But this particular situation is so important, that I think the families and the servicepeople understand and will suck it up.