Army tours extended - Troops' reaction: Stoicism, anxiety

Army tours extended - Troops' reaction: Stoicism, anxiety
By Aamer Madhani, Washington Bureau; Tribune national correspondents Kirsten Scharnberg in Hawaii and Dahleen Glanton in Georgia contributed to this story
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
Published April 12, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon announced Wednesday that all active-duty Army soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan will now serve 15-month tours, three months longer than the standard deployment. The move, intended to bolster a "stretched" U.S. military, was greeted by troops and their families with a mix of anxiety, soldierly stoicism and disappointment.

The new policy goes into effect immediately and would allow the White House to maintain the troop buildup in Iraq for the next year, while delaying the return trip home for thousands of soldiers already in Iraq. Critics said the extension puts a greater burden on troops from whom too much has already been asked.

The extended terms of deployment will not affect the Marines, who generally serve seven-month tours, or the Army National Guard or Army Reserve, which serve 12-month tours. Two Army brigades that already had their terms extended by 120 days will remain on their schedules.

At Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, Staff Sgt. Edgardo Delgardo arrived home for two weeks of leave from his tour in Iraq on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning, he and his family found out that his tour, which had been set to end in September, will be extended until the end of the year.

Delgado, 29, of the 25th Infantry Division, stood shaking his head in disbelief. "You're kidding, you're kidding," he said again and again upon learning the news.

His wife, Stephany Delgado, who has been raising the couple's four children alone while also getting her master's degree, was more vocal about her frustration.

"It's unfair to the family, to the kids," she said, looking at her 3-year-old daughter, who was born during Delgado's last deployment to Iraq. His current deployment marks his third time in the war zone.

At Ft. Stewart, Ga., soldiers from 4th Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division expressed mixed emotions upon hearing that their upcoming tour in Iraq would be extended.

"Some of the newer soldiers expressed sadness or surprise. They were concerned about spending more time there dealing with possible hostile situations," said Lt. Kevin Brown. "But everyone is human. We just told them that everything will be all right and that we will look after them."


Flexibility for commanders

In making the announcement, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that it is too early to say whether the so-called troop surge in Iraq -- adding about 28,000 U.S. troops -- will continue beyond the end of this summer, but the extended tours will certainly give commanders on the ground more flexibility. He said that the decision was made at the recommendation of Peter Geren, the acting Army secretary, and Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff.

Soldiers at Ft. Stewart learned of the longer deployments on CNN, as Gates and Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced the policy at a hastily arranged Pentagon news conference after word began leaking out before the Army could inform the affected soldiers. The 4th Brigade is being sent to Baghdad as part of the troop buildup.

While some veteran soldiers said they are prepared physically and mentally to stay as long as they are needed, platoon leaders said some soldiers preparing for their first deployment expressed concerns about the three-month extension.

But Lt. Tony Dovie, 23, of New Orleans said he was concentrating on the mission, not the length of time he will spend in Iraq.

"Our vision is to focus on the task," said Dovie, a 4th Brigade platoon leader who is preparing for his first deployment to Iraq. "I am going to do my job no matter what the timeline is."

While acknowledging U.S. forces are feeling the strain, Gates said the military is not broken. He added that without changing the standard tour length, the Army would have been forced to send five brigades into Iraq before they had completed 12 months of service at their home bases.


'Our forces are stretched'

"Our forces are stretched, there is no question about that," Gates said. "What we're trying to do here is provide some long-term predictability for the soldiers and their families about how long their deployments will be and how long they will be at home."

The announcement came as the White House and the Democratic-controlled Congress are at an impasse over spending bills to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that include language calling for a pullout from Iraq next year.

President Bush has invited Democratic leaders to the White House to discuss the bills, but says he will not budge from his position that he will not consider any legislation that includes an end date to the war in Iraq. Democratic leaders, who extended an invitation to Bush to come to Capitol Hill to talk about the bills, say they are willing to talk to Bush, but they will not be dictated to.

Democrats immediately pounced on the announcement to extend deployments for active-duty soldiers as ill-conceived.

"This new policy will be an additional burden to an already overstretched Army," said Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. "I think this will have a chilling effect on recruiting, retention and readiness. We also must not underestimate the enormous negative impact this will have on Army families."

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), who has been one of a few vocal Republican critics of the Bush administration's handling of the war, said he feared the change in policy could have long-lasting effects on an already overburdened Army.

"Maintaining this tempo of operations will have drastic and lasting consequences for our nation's military readiness and unnecessarily endangers our ability to react to any other crisis in the world," Hagel said. "We are on a very dangerous course."

But Pace argued that changing the length of deployments would give soldiers and their families greater predictability about their lives. The Army has repeatedly extended tours for various units throughout the 4-year-old war.

"This goes a long way toward making sure that we will have proper amount of time to train them," Pace said, " ... that they will have a predictable life; that they can sit there around the dinner table and know that on calendar month so-and-so, daddy's going to leave, and on calendar month so-and-so, mommy's going to come home and those kinds of things."


Troops in place by June

Only two of the five Army brigades being sent as part of the Iraq troop buildup are fully active in Baghdad, but the third is moving in now. All five aren't expected to be in place until June, and commanders in Iraq have said that it won't be until fall before they can properly access whether the troop buildup is curbing the sectarian violence.

In January, Bush announced that 21,500 additional troops would be sent to Iraq, most of them to Baghdad. That number has swelled to about 28,000 to include additional military police and support units. When the surge is complete, there are expected to be more than 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, the largest American presence since the force was bolstered in late 2005 to protect Iraqi elections.

While the change in deployment lengths will allow commanders to maintain the Iraq troop buildup well into next year if they choose to, Gates would not commit to saying it would last that long.

"We are creating the capability to keep it in place," he said. "Whether it will be kept in place depends entirely on the conditions on the ground."

----------

amadhani@tribune.com