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9-month deployments, 3 years of dwell favored

By Jim Tice - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jun 21, 2010 10:35:51 EDT

The Army wants to reduce combat zone deployments to nine months and increase dwell time to three years, Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, told Army Times.


“We’re actively studying right now the timing and the possibilities of going to nine-month deployments as a standard,” Casey said in an exclusive interview June 7.


The Army started the war in Afghanistan with 12-month deployments and continued into Iraq with 12-month deployments. But in early 2007, the Army extended deployments to 15 months when it sent an additional 20,000 troops there. In August 2008, about 17 months later, deployments were shortened again to 12 months.


“Fifteen months is too long,” Casey said. “Twelve months is too long to sustain indefinitely. Six months is too short.”


The Marines do seven-month deployments, but Casey said that doesn’t work for the Army, which is much larger.


“It’s a volume question right now,” he said. “We’ve got 20-some brigades deployed. They have two or three regiments. And for us to make just — you know, changing out 20, if you have — if you go to nine-month deployments over a three-year period, you need one more unit to fill. So ... the volume of the folks that we have to send over there has made it impossible for us to do that.”


Acknowledging the impact of longer deployments on soldiers and their families, Casey said the Army believes nine months is about right.


Read the rest of the article here: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/0...ments_062110w/