Army to continue Stop-loss / Extending tours

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Army to Keep Extending Troops' Service
By LOLITA C. BALDOR – 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Army will continue to rely on an unpopular program that forces some soldiers to stay on beyond their retirement or re-enlistment dates, despite repeated pressure from Defense Secretary Robert Gates to reduce and eventually eliminate the practice.

Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle, deputy chief of staff for personnel, said Thursday that the number of soldiers kept on duty has actually increased in recent months as a result of President Bush's orders to increase troop levels in Iraq this year to help quell the violence.

The number of those being kept on beyond their commitment — through a program known as "stop loss" — is about 9,000 now, compared to about 7,000 before the troop buildup began in late January, he said.

"Until there is some reduction in the demand, we're going to have to rely, unfortunately ... on stop loss," Rochelle told reporters. "Until the demand comes down a bit, we can't do it without it."

As recently as last month, Gates sent a memo to Army Secretary Pete Geren asking for quarterly progress reports on "reducing and ultimately eliminating the use of stop-loss as soon as feasible."

Rochelle added that when the expected withdrawal of troops from Iraq begins, the Army's reliance on the program will eventually decline.

In other remarks, Rochelle also suggested that the Army will only be able to increase its numbers by about 4,000 in the next year — a fraction of the 35,000 boost that Pentagon and Army leaders have set as a goal by 2010.

He said the Army will rely largely on two relatively new recruitment programs that would reward current active duty soldiers and National Guard soldiers who successfully bring in new people.

Other than those new efforts, the basic recruitment and retention goals for 2008 will stay the same as 2007, at 80,000 and 65,000 respectively, he said.

That, he said, reflects the "realistic view on how challenging it is at this point in time" to increase the size of the Army.

The Guard program, which only just began, has already garnered 25 recruits and there are 100 in the pipeline, Rochelle said, adding that the effort could bring in as many as 3,000 in 2008.

He said the Army is likely to continue increasing the financial, educational and other incentives to keep soldiers in the service. He declined to detail the costs of the incentives, or how much that might increase next year.

On the Net:
Defense Department: http://www.defenselink.mil
U.S. Army: http://www.army.mil

[Nickdfresh]

AP NewsBreak: Pentagon to Alert 8 National Guard Units for Iraq, Afghanistan Duty

10-18-2007 11:39 AM
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (Associated Press) -- The Pentagon is preparing to alert eight National Guard units that they should be ready to go to Iraq or Afghanistan beginning late next summer, The Associated Press has learned.

The U.S. military is reaching out to more Guard units in an effort to maintain needed troop levels, ease some of the strain on the active duty Army and provide security for ports, convoys and other installations.

According to defense officials Wednesday, seven of the units would deploy to Iraq and one to Afghanistan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the orders had not yet been signed and the announcement is not expected until the end of this week.

Two of the units will be full combat brigades heading to Iraq _ between next summer and into 2009, to serve as part of the rotation with active duty troops. There are currently 20 combat brigades in Iraq, but under plans mapped out by President Bush and his top commanders, that number will gradually drop to 15 next year, as the U.S. reduces its troop presence there.

Those two Guard brigades would include about 3,500 soldiers each _ generally the size of a combat brigade. But the other five going to Iraq will be much smaller brigades that are tailored for specialized support operations, mostly security and detainee operations. Their sizes vary, but some would be about 1,000 troops.

The announcement sometime this week will give the Guard units advanced notice of the planned deployment schedule so that they can begin training and preparing. Also, because it looks far into the future, there is always the possibility that plans could change, based on conditions in Iraq.

There are now 171,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, largely because several units are overlapping as some move in and others move out of the country. Once those transitions are complete and the drawdown begins, the level of troops in Iraq could drop to as low as 135,000.

Some of the smaller Guard units would be stationed in Kuwait, where they would provide security for the port there, as well as convoys that move in and out of Iraq.

All together, the Guard announcement would involve about 20,000 soldiers.

Specific brigades were not identified, but they will include units from North Carolina, Oklahoma, Illinois and Hawaii, according to officials. Some of those being alerted this week have done tours in the war zone already, and others would be going for the first time.

A key element of the plan calls for sending the Guard brigades in fully intact units, complete with their own commanders and headquarters, rather than breaking them up and spreading them around, as has been done in Iraq in previous Guard deployments. Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard, has made that a priority, saying his brigades are more effective working as teams.

At the same time, the plan will also allow the citizen soldiers to serve just eight or nine months on the battlefield, as part of a 12-month deployment. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has committed to having Guard soldiers serve in war zones for no more than one year, including the final training time before they leave.

Previously, Guard soldiers would spend up to six months training before going overseas for 12 months _ forcing them to be away from home for as long as 18 months. More recently, brigades in Iraq _ including some Guard units _ saw their deployments extended to up to 15 months on the battlefield.

The new plan would have them spend several months at home training, then the remainder of the year at the battlefront.

As of this summer, more than 185,000 Guard members had served in either Iraq or Afghanistan over the past six years and more than 28,000 of them had been deployed more than once.