27 Feb 2008
Army plans to cut length of combat tours in Iraq
LA Times:
Moving to relieve strain on troops, the Army plans to reduce the length of combat tours from 15 months to one year after the troop buildup in Iraq winds down this summer, top officials told Congress on Tuesday.
Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, said he would trim combat tours once the Pentagon fulfilled plans to reduce the number of Army brigades in Iraq by July.
I don’t know how do-able it would be in practice, but cutting National Guard deployments should be given priority over numbers and/or lengths of active Army deployments.
February 28th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Gosh only knows I’ve run into enough MilSpecs, who were bone tired or being overseas, and thinking of bailing as early as possible. Sounds like a good thing to me, but I don’t know if it’s workable (sounds like feel good talk to me).
February 28th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Do’able if they go to 12 brigades at end-2008. Three more than currently planned for end July. About where I expect them to be if something doesn’t go wrong…